of High Mountains and Dark Valleys

I can still feel the exhilaration. I felt as if I were standing on top of the world. I could look in all directions and see the world falling away from me until the horizon, so far away that it was faded by the slight mist in the atmosphere, merged gently into the sky.

I may have climbed only to the top of

Snowdon

but, as a child still, I had had to walk hard to get there and the view was worth it all. I have been on other heights since but none of them quite carried the excitement of that first great view of the world beneath my feet – a real mountain-top experience!

I’ve been in dark, dull valleys too, not all of them geographical. Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that the mountain is still there. Such is human nature!

We’ve just celebrated Pentecost. That was definitely a mountain-top experience for all the first disciples who were involved in that wonderful day: the sound of a roaring wind that came, apparently, from nowhere; flaming tongues of what looked like fire, resting on each head; everyone getting excited enough to let God just take control of their tongues…

Then, only a little while later, they were feeling the heat of persecution and they must have been wondering what God was up to.

Why is life so unpredictable? Why can’t we just stay on an ‘even keel’?

I suspect that we would learn very little of God that way. If we always knew what to expect, we would soon get into the habit of leaning on our own understanding, doing what we did before and avoiding putting our trust in the all-powerful God. In fact, we that’s exactly what we try to do most of the time! Then, the unexpected things of life – especially the valleys that have a habit of appearing from behind hidden corners – pop up. They remind us that we are kidding ourselves – even in the good times – when we think that we don’t need God. We are human and that means that we need God: all the time!

A song came to my attention for the first time recently. It’s called ‘God on the Mountain’ and its chorus includes these words:

The God of the mountain

is still God in the valley…

And the God in the good times

is still God in the bad times.

The God of the day

is still God in the night.

We talk of faith when we’re up on the mountain,

but talk comes easy when life’s at its best;

but in the valley of trials and temptations,

that’s when faith is really put to the test.

I would add that the God of Pentecost is still God in the prison cell; and the God of Easter is the God who hung and died on Good Friday; the God who rejoices with us in our great family celebrations is still God at the funerals. He is God and that means that everything is in His hands. We don’t have to understand it to believe it – God’s in control and He’s the only One worth trusting.

Liz