If Your Mountain Won't Move, Climb It!

If Your Mountain Won’t Move, Climb It! “I’ve learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.” ~ Author unknown Have you ever had an extremely difficult day? I think we are all nodding our heads yes. There are days that are bad and then there are days that are really bad. We all have had our share of troublesome days but then a good night’s sleep can usually correct a lot of situations and readjust our frayed emotions from the day before. What has been the worst day of your life? The worst day of my life was not the day I discovered I had cancer. For me the worst day of my life was “the morning after.” The morning you wake up and hope yesterday was just a bad dream but then you realize it wasn’t. I did not say it as poetic as Job did but I felt the same way. Job 10:18 says, "Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.” Life is not always easy. In fact for some of us it is just plain hard. And to add to that, it sometimes feels down right unfair. Ever felt like that? During one of my hospital stays my oncologist came walking into my hospital room one morning and stood at the foot of my bed. I was a bit down because of a “minor setback” I was experiencing. I am usually a pretty positive person, but that day I was “Nancy Negative.” He just smiled and said, “It’s just another bump in the road. You’ll get passed that.” It may have felt like a “bump” to him but it felt like a mountain to me. Just as mountains have their level of difficulty in trying to climb them, life also provides us with situations that make us feel vulnerable, weak, and leave us with the impression that there is no hope in overcoming anything, not even a bump. You may feel your mountain is like climbing K2. K2 is the second highest mountain on the earth, also known as Godwin Austin, and it is considered the world’s toughest mountain to climb. It is also called, “The Savage Mountain.” It is steeper and more difficult to climb than Everest. The weather is much colder and less predictable than on Everest. For every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying. I have no desire whatsoever to even try to climb that mountain. It sounds way too risky for me. Have you ever wanted to quit before you even started? Maybe you heard a bad report from you doctor and your prognosis was so bad that you thought, “What’s the use of even trying?” I have felt like that at times. I have looked up at my mountain and have wanted to quit before I even started to try climbing it but then I realized that I would rather die attempting to scale it, than die because I gave up and did nothing. The title for this book was inspired by my first trip to Estes Park, Colorado. If you have never been there, it would be well worth your money and your time. My husband decided a week before we left that he needed a vacation. Unfortunately, I need at least six months to plan a major trip, my husband only needs six minutes and a few outfits. Well it basically takes him 30 minutes to pack. It takes me 30 days! Just ask him. A week is definitely pushing it. Men and women are so different in so many ways and packing for a trip is one major difference. Men just pull out things from their closet and randomly stuff them into their suitcase. Then they enthusiastically announce, to your annoyance, that they are ready to go, when you have not even started. Women, on the other hand, have to try on every outfit making sure everything matches, and most importantly, fits! Then they neatly lay everything in their suitcases, usually between plastic bags, so their clothes do not get wrinkled. Note the plural of suitcase. Did I mention packing snacks, getting drinks for the cooler, putting clean sheets on all the beds, making sure all the laundry is done, the house cleaned and picked up, and if you have small children, packing their suitcases too? No wonder why men are ready first. Our first choice for vacation was going to be Prince Edward Island, a small but beautiful piece of land on Canada's eastern coast. Our inspiration came from my teenage daughter's love for "Anne of Green Gables," a family favorite with the women in our house. We were so excited to visit every spot Meghan Follows was filmed. But after some debate over the cost of air fare, renting a vehicle, and only having a week to plan it, we opted for our second choice, Colorado. My daughter, a self-made photographer, thought the mountains would be a good place to practice her skills in photography. So we packed (me in record time), and got into our faithful suburban which took us through the boring state of Kansas (sorry Dorothy), to the beautiful state of Colorado. And the mountains exceeded our expectations. They were breath taking, literally speaking in more ways than one, due to the high altitude. Actually, my 18 year old daughter passed out within the first twenty-four hours of getting there at a local restaurant. If you can get passed the altitude sickness, then you are in for a view of your life. As I focused on those majestic mountains, the Bible verse in Mark 11:23 immediately came to my mind, “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” I think Jesus used the word “mountain” to get across the “bigness” of a problem. I like the questions my 5 year old grandson asked. “How does God move mountains? Aren’t they really heavy?” They sure are and He sure can! But what if your mountain will not move, or even budge? We all have mountains that block our paths at times. I have a huge one I want moved. Every day I realize how hard I want to move it and every day I realize how hard it is to move it, or even budge it. It feels as big as the mountains I saw situated in front of me in Estes Park. But as beautiful as those mountains were at the base, I was told that the view from the top was going to be even more spectacular. As I looked at one of God’s most impressive creations, I thought of my own mountain that is blocking my path and thought, "If my mountain won’t move, I'll climb it.” And so the title of this book came to life right before my very eyes. I cannot say that it has not been difficult, discouraging, and dangerous at times, but the views along the way and the lessons I have learned have been amazing. I hope for the next few chapters I can walk along side of you as you climb your mountain, by sharing with you bits and pieces of my own personal experiences, difficulties, and accomplishments. I like what my friend said to me one day, not knowing how perfectly it fit with this introduction. We were sitting at my kitchen table and she looked at me and said, “We tend to look at mountains as a bad thing that Jesus has to cast into the sea, but sometimes those mountains are not troubles in our lives but triumphs! Sometimes God does not move the mountain but calls us to climb it and conquer it.” So gather your supplies and get on your hiking shoes and let's go mountain climbing!