Life isn’t always valleys and green pastures, is it? In many ways, life resembles the topography and nature of Oregon. Oh, there are green pastures and rich farmland soul that produce crops and fruit, but there are also desert wastelands with little water and not much more than tumbleweed. We have beaches that are lovely to look at with long stretches of sand to stroll along, and we have dangerous rocky jetties and cliffs continuously pounded by rough seas. There are beautiful and wild rivers with access to amazing pools of water and waterfalls that are hidden or tucked away amidst the forest trees. Oregon certainly holds a variety of God’s beauty in creation!
Oregon also holds mountains. Tall peaks. These peaks are not often accessible to the common man or typical Oregonian. We see them, yes. We can even weave our way around some of them in our vehicles using the roads that some engineers have meticulously laid out for us. But for those of us who are not trained mountain climbers, those peaks are insurmountable. They are dangerous. People die on those mountains trying to summit them.
Life holds mountains, doesn’t it? Life can feel overwhelmingly difficult and impossible to overcome.
I cannot help but think that our culture is successfully painting in our minds insurmountable challenges. These paintings are meant to cripple us. Defeat us. Freeze us. Prevent us from even attempting to scale the mountains in our world and within our own communities. Poverty. Homelessness. Abuse. Broken homes. Debt. Offenses. Racism. Politics. Gender wars… They are all huge mountains that appear to be growing in height and treachery with each passing year. And the mountain range isn’t limited to these.
Christian friend, why are we looking from the base of the mountains and freezing? Why are we living in fear of them or in fear of ascending to the top of them? Do we not remember the power and strength of our God? Do we not remember who God is and what He has done? God is the LORD of all creation and is the LORD over it.
Psalms 97:5 is a powerful reminder of what God’s view of life’s mountains is. “The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the LORD of all the earth.” Mountains melt like wax before Him. They are as nothing to Him. They appear insurmountable, but with God, they are nothing. No issue. There is no reason to fear. There is no reason to freeze. There is a carved path – a solid route – engineered by the Creator himself, to help us past them.
God is good. God is faithful. He is able. He is listening. He is watching. He is ready to save, help, and guide His people no matter the mountains that appear before them. Our job is to ask for His help, and then receive it.
Blessings.