Reaching for the mountain

At a recent church retreat as I sat with tears in my eyes and burning heart, my Shepherd spoke to me.  In an experience I’ll never forget, He revealed Himself to me as my Shepherd (something I’ve known all along yet never experienced this way) and changed the way I think of life and faith. I see now that life is a journey of faith, a journey that He Himself is taking me on. The closer to Him I get the more I stumble and fall. I have fallen many times yet each time I am again humbled by the grace and compassion that my Shepherd extends towards me. 

     Talking to a friend I described it as this: “completed faith is like a distant mountain. We are always traveling towards it yet never reaching it.”   We are on a perpetual journey with our Shepherd and each time we stop and think, “At last I have arrived. My faith has never been greater!” that is when we fall. And we fall hard.  Why do we fall?  So that we can learn from our mistakes and humbly realize just how far we are from that mountain.  The stronger we think our faith is, the weaker we really are for pride is slowly seeping in and poisoning our faith. 

   My brothers and sisters, wherever you are in life, be you in the dark valley, along lonely seashores or on peaceful heights, NEVER GIVE UP! Continue onward in the face of present evils reaching always for the hand that strengthens our faith, for one day our King will return and on that day our faith will be complete in Him! Until then it is ours not to question the path He chooses or assume we are complete, but to hold tight to His hand and rest in the promises of our Shepherd. 

   "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step"

-Martin Luther King Jr.

"For the glory of God!"