Climbing the mountain
I love to ski. I talk about it to all my non-skiing friends, tell them about the views, the crispness of the clean mountain air.
I especially let them know about the views from the top. I show them pictures online and say, “Look, you can even see the lakes, you can see forever from up there!” There’s just one problem…
I’ve never been to the top.
I am afraid to go to the top, afraid I won’t make it back down. I am still a beginning skier, and even though most ski resorts have beginner trails that start from the top, I have a fear that keeps me from checking it out. I continue to muddle around on the lower part of the mountain, content on my bunny slopes.
Oh, I wish I had the courage to go up. My husband tells me how beautiful it is, and assures me that I could do it. He would stay with me the whole way, to aid my confidence.
But I just can’t do it. Actually, that’s not right. I just WON’T do it.
And that is how many Christians are with their faith. Once we accept Christ into our lives, we are content to muddle through on the edges, showing up for our one hour a week at church but not leaving our comfort zone to grow in our faith. Digging deeper into the Word, sharing our faith with others and giving ourselves to service within the body of the Church are things that get pushed aside, often from fear of failure, or the contentment that we find in our “safe place.”
But if we would venture up that mountain, we would grow in ways that are hard to imagine. If we would leave the bunny slopes for higher terrain, we would grow closer to God in the process. The higher we go, the closer we would come in communion with our God.
And the views would be fantastic!
March 24th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
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