Lessons From the Mountain pt.2
As I descended Liberty Mountain following my very first time visiting, I felt a gentle nudge urging me to stop and return to the summit to which I did what any good Christian would do, I ignored it and kept traversing down the mountain road. My reluctance to turn around was immediately followed by a slightly less gentle shove to stop the car and return to the top. My mother tells me I was a stubborn boy and that boy must have been driving at this point because I still did not stop. Following a third not gentle at all command to stop and turn around I finally obliged the Holy Spirit’s invitation to return. I call it an invitation because what awaited me at the top was nothing short of a gift from God that has continued to shape my life to this day.
Upon returning to the top of the mountain I pulled up on a side road just short of the gazebo at the top where a makeshift cross stood watch over the campus below. As I emerged from my car and started walking towards this cross a rock on the path in front of me caught my attention. As I bent down to pick up this rock I heard the voice of God within my spirit tell me, “What does My Word say? I want you to cast your cares upon me and leave your burden at the foot of My Cross.” My trip up Liberty Mountain that day was not only to catch a glimpse of the view, but also some clarity and direction as just a few weeks before I was thrown into the most difficult season of my life. In that moment I was being asked by my Heavenly Father to give up control of not just that situation but my life and the ramifications of the events of the season. As I prayed over that rock and everything it represented I laid it down as an act of surrender to the Father and no sooner than it left my hand a mighty gust of wind blew on an otherwise calm night, as if to say, “I got this.” As I left the mountain that night I knew something had changed, a shift had occurred, and freedom was felt. In fact, as I drove down the mountain it was as if the only thing keeping me from floating away, like Charlie Bucket in Willie Wonka’s factory, was the steering wheel in my hands.
Over the next year, I constantly thought back to that moment on the mountain. Despite that moment with God, my life did not get any easier, in fact it only became more heart wrenching as the burden that I laid at the foot of the cross became more difficult. Amazingly, despite the difficulty, I was not overcome, and I did not shrink back. I found myself walking in a renewed strength previously unknown, and my needs were being met at a level I had never before seen. While life was giving me the most difficult year of my life, God was making it the most impactful and fruitful year despite the circumstances. When I look back on that year I can truly state that I saw Romans 8:28, “that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” at work in my life. Following that year, I returned to the mountain with the intent of revisiting that cross where I laid down my burden, only to find that the cross was gone. I believe it was God’s way of saying, stop looking for what was left and start living for what is ahead, as that day also saw the restoration of something I thought was lost. Let me make something clear, God did not restore what I laid down, instead he redeemed a bad situation with an upgraded return to his will and design. When it comes to God and his promise to work things together for those that are faithful to seek him, he does not hand out second rate leftovers but rather bestows miraculous first-class blessings.
Upon my return to the mountain that day, I learned that when we are obedient to Christ, regardless of personal circumstance or repercussions, he is faithful to his word and will work things together in a way that will far exceed expectations. When the Holy Spirit prompted my submission in surrendering my burden that first time on Liberty Mountain, I expected that I was going to traverse the future with a hole where that burden once resided. Instead, what I found was that God not only filled that void but walked with me in new ways. He strengthened me, directed me and as I grew in him, he changed me from the inside out creating a stronger, bolder version of myself. Through his walking alongside, he prepared me for the future ahead, working on hurts, hang-ups, and false beliefs so that when I would return to the mountain I would be ready to receive what he was going to bestow upon me. Our lives tell a story; they are a testimony of who we are and how we have allowed God to move. The narrative of our lives are going to be filled with heartache and trauma. We are going to face times of struggle and lack, but there is a purpose in the pain and through those times of uncomfortable desperation, God is sovereign. He will not let anything go to waste and if we let him take the lead and direct our path through it, the destination that rests on the other side of the struggle is worth the pain of the process.