GRACE

My entire life I’ve had my eyes set on each mountain and the struggle that comes with climbing them.  I’ve sometimes complained so much about going up the steep, rocky, jagged mountains that I was unaware that I had reached the top.  When descending into the lowly valley I quickly forgot the achievement of touching the mountains peak.  Instead of a grateful smile I grew afraid of the unknown, forecasting showers which lead to the treading of mud in dark lonely places. I looked for a safe place to hide not even knowing whether danger was truly present. 

My predicament made me consider going back to the same mountain, climbing it again and remaining at its peak.  Of course, tracking backwards down the mountain on the side which I had previously climbed was out of the question because I knew all too well what lurked in those forests.  The more I pondered what I would get out of just standing on the mountain top the more I realized I could not get to the place I wanted and needed to be in so I tread forward with apprehension. 

In the valley I met those headed towards the mountain I just left.  Many had on blinders, thus they never recognized I was in the valley with them.  Others looked afraid, stopping to ask if the mountain was really as scary and hard to climb as people discuss.  I respond with an encouraging word of, “it was challenging but you can do it”.  They continue on, still afraid but more confident and I too hear my own words, which encourage me as I journey on.  Two, three, four, five --- I climb one mountain after the next, some of great size.  Some sharper than others, some windier than others, some slipperier than others but with each feat I grew less afraid of the incline and less weary of the decline.

God’s Grace has been, is and will always be sufficient for every journey in this life and I am all the more grateful for each experience.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me”
1 Corinthians 15:10

“Growing stronger, bolder, wiser and less afraid with Grace”