The Climb

After yesterdays blog post, I reflected on the many people I know.  I am grateful beyond measure for the richness of their friendship and acquaintance.
I want my readers to know that I primarily write for those within the body of Christ, the Church. 

Each person I know is on a path.  Some of our paths are not the same and some are quite similar.  I don't know about you but I've walked some pretty grueling paths.  One of the hardest was a path that led up to the top of Grouse Mountain, which is located on the North Shore of Vancouver.  They call this trek the Grouse Grind.  There are many people who have and continue to walk up this mountain and some run up it.  I've done it a few times in my life (I was not a regular Grinder!) and quite challenging for the fittest person, to which I am not. 

To do the grind, you have to keep your eyes focused on the path ahead of you and be mindful of your feet.  You are essentially focused on reaching the top.  There are no other options really.  You can stop and take a breath and there are spaces to do that in the hike, but for the most part, it's a hard incline upwards.  Our feet placement while climbing is important.  Carefully planting our feet on a sure and solid part of the path is essential.  There are times going up the grind where you stop to figure out the best place to take a step. 

You have to begin to believe you can do it.  That you can make it.  Once you begin to doubt it, you begin to get weary, emotions take over and you may end up quitting and begin the decent, which is sometimes harder to do than the ascent.  It's here in this place were we can admit that it's hard and that we're having trouble.  I know that many times during my climb, I admitted that this was hard and I had to rest, but I had decided that I would get to the top.  During the climb many people would pass me and encourage me...cheer me on as they zipped passed me.

We need this in our walk of sanctification.  There will be many trials along the way and we need the company of others who are continuing the journey faithfully, not necessarily perfectly.

When I finally reached the top of the Mountain, I stood in awe of the amazing task that was completed, that I actually did it without collapsing.  I walked around and looked beyond the trees to the ocean and city below.  Beautiful view!

If I had given up, I would never have seen the view through the eyes of gratitude for the work it took.  Sure I could have taken the gondola up, but I think I would have missed something really amazing...the climb.

So, I'm reminded of the path that God has shown me to walk.  A path that can appear to be quite the climb, with narrow passages, tricky footing, but along the way God has given me amazing friends and family who encourage me, who speak truth, who shower me with grace, who always point me to Jesus...and this is where I find my rest in the climb.