Mountains and Valleys

If you are my friend on Facebook (and you haven’t stopped following me or snoozed me :-) you know that I finished that walk I promised I would on Saturday.

Three of my friends here and my husband and daughter and her boyfriend and kids had agreed to come all the way to Lynchburg to support me. When our office in Lynchburg had to cancel the Do It 4 The Kids Day event,  I knew that I had about 125 people who were going to be very upset if I didn’t do the walk.    So we had our own impromptu event.  There were no bouncy houses, no food was served, but it was really fun.   I had said I would walk 25. and ended up walking 3.09.  Some of us went out to lunch afterwards.  It was such a great day.

Then yesterday, when I should have been walking around church collecting remaining pledges and being congratulated, I was instead at urgent care and in bed with kidney stones.

The reason for this blog entry, however, is not, to have it be all about me.  When I share my own personal story, it is to remind you of something similar that you have gone through and tie in spiritual connections for you and for me.

So, when was there a time when you had a huge victory and the next day you found yourself feeling completely defeated?   Peter, James and John sure knew what that felt like.  In Matthew 17 they were with Jesus on a mountain when suddenly Jesus was transfigured — his face shown like the sun and his clothes became white as the light.   Suddenly, Elijah and Moses appeared.   Peter was in the middle of trying to convince Jesus to let him put up shelters for them to live in when they heard God’s voice and fell to the ground terrified.  Jesus encouraged them to get up and told them not to be afraid.

Wow, what an amazing experience!  To see Jesus transfigured, to be in the presence of Moses and Elijah, and to hear the very voice of God all in one day.   That had to have been an awesome experience.  They headed down the mountain and the first thing they came across was a man whose son was possessed by a demon.  Ugh.  Can you imagine how their euphoria suddenly disappeared?

Life is like that.   We have highs and we have lows.  The key is believing that God is with us, no matter what.  Today I share two songs, one of which I have shared before.  One brand new one, and one very old one, that talk about this idea of mountain tops and valleys…