Mountain Top Experience

From Jill: We have been recently encouraged by the addition of 4 new monthly supporters! It's exciting to see our team grow!
We are also encouraged and excited about our upcoming visit to Mexico and Southern California!
We will be attending a staff retreat, visiting the Gabriel House and participating in training. Can't wait for the end of the summer to come!!!!
So, Ed and I hiked Mt Starr King in Jefferson the other day, and while I was contemplating how I was actually going to finish the climb I thought about a multitude of spiritual analogies. Like finding joy in the journey, not the destination... the Lord provides strength, don't rely on my own... trust in the Lord with all your might and lean not on your own understanding .... I could go on and on!
The one I wanted to share with you, and that meant the most to me occurred once we reached the top. We had climbed 2 1/2 hours in high humidity with the goal of reaching "the top" where we would find a beautiful view and share in a glorious and rewarding mountain top experience. Well, we DID reach the top, but there was NO view, NO glorious mountain top experience - just a big flat rock surrounded by trees and the reward of knowing that there was no more "up" to go. Spiritual analogy: To be so focused on our hopes of the goal, to have our own expectations of God's work in our lives - we DO miss out on the journey, no matter how difficult or painful it may be - and we miss out on the wonder of what lies ahead. We need to trust in God for the end result and not our own expectations. God DOES know what is best for us in every circumstance and trusting in Him is key. Relating to Mexico, it was a humbling reminder. We are currently on our uphill journey to get there, and we KNOW that there is a "top", that we HAVE been called to go... but what exactly will we find? A beautiful view? A flat rock? Pray for us that we will embrace whatever the Lord had prepared for us in Mexico - we are!
SO, we DID wind up having a glorious mountain top experience - it was just different than our expectations. We laughed, gorged on trail mix, took photos... and then remembered that the top is just half of the experience - we still needed to hike back down! And THOSE analogies I'll save for another day!
Dios le Bendiga - May God Bless You!