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Climb Every Mountain: Knowing God in all His Wildness




“The Lord is my fort where I can enter and be safe; no one can follow me in and slay me.  He is a rugged mountain where I hide; he is my Savior, a rock where none can reach me, and a tower of safety.  He is my shield.  He is like the strong horn of a mighty fighting bull.”
~ Psalm 18:2, Living Bible Paraphrase ~

For those of you who have seen The Sound of Music, have watched Julie Andrews run through the rugged Austrian Alps singing, “The Hills are Alive,” or have heard Mother Superior sing “Climb Every Mountain,” and watched in trepidation as the Von Trapp family escaped to Switzerland through those same mountains – perhaps you’ll understand why I chose the title I did for this blog; perhaps even now you have goosebumps as I do, though mine are for a different reason.  Since returning home from our adventure in the mountains of Pennsylvania and watching The Sound of Music yet another time, Psalm 18:2 has been rolling around on the inside of me.  My God is a rugged mountain where I hide …  Though I’ve always loved that imagery, this week God has been challenging me to really investigate all that He offers us in that reality, that He is our rugged mountain.  What does that even mean?  What is God trying to impart to us by telling us that?  After a week of meditating on this verse, I believe the answer is a complex and beautiful allegory of His very nature and the realities of what a walk with Him will look like on this earth.

Majestic and Beautiful 

Following curving highways through the mountains of Pennsylvania, my breath caught in my throat; goosebumps rose on my arms.  It was beautiful – the way they rose so majestically above our heads and simultaneously fell away below us to devastatingly beautiful valleys.  The way the colors danced on the snow as the sun was setting, the way the lights of the villages glittered like fireflies in winter, floating out with an unexplainable warmth from the places they were nestled among the foothills – the wonder of a country like this is meant to point us back to the beauty and majesty of our God.  Psalm 145:5, in the Voice translation, says, “Your majesty and glorious splendor have captivated me; I will meditate on Your wonders, sing songs of your worth.” Just as driving through the mountains and beholding their beauty causes us to gasp in wonder, so beholding our mighty God should cause our breath to catch, our imagination to soar, our hearts to swell with joy and inexpressible pleasure.  Our God is like a mighty mountain, with new heights to discover each day!  Psalm 145:3, in the Living Bible, says that God’s “greatness is beyond discovery” – that like a person wandering on foot through the great Rocky Mountains, we could never discover all the beauty, all the wondrous creation and splendor our God has in store for us in Himself.  He has wrapped Himself in glory, surrounded Himself in beauty.  He, in and of Himself, His very nature, is so majestic that we could get lost in its wonder, in its freshness, in its purity.  That, I believe is the first message of the mountains for us, His people.

Dangerous and Intimidating

Yet our God is not a tame God, either.  Any mountain-climber could tell you that a mountain is not to be taken for granted, is not to be underestimated.  To master the mountain and reach the summit is not an easy trek; in fact, it’s often a deadly endeavor.  And such is the endeavor to know our God – difficult and dangerous, not for the weak at heart or the unprepared – and it should come as no surprise to us.  Our God will not be pursued by those who are only half-hearted about it.  He is no prostitute.  Our God is a God who will be pursued passionately.  In Jeremiah 29:13, He says, “You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest.”  Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  That word “seek” in the Strong’s Concordance could also be translated, “search out, investigate, crave, demand, require.”  To know God is a desperate affair, is a crazed endeavor up the face of a mountain – it is not something that can be approached passively, or we will never make it.  Writing about the number of climbing deaths on a particular mountain in Europe, Stewart Green said:

“Many die because of subjective reasons such as unpreparedness, not bringing the right equipment and clothing, lack of experience, and bad judgment.  The others die for objective reasons including avalanches, falling rocks, blizzards, and bad weather … Immediate causes of death included not employing a guide; climbing unknown routes from late fall to spring; and ‘foolhardy adventurousness, vanity, the spirit of emulation, want of experience, and even absentmindedness.’”[1]

Does that sound familiar?  Jesus warned that the road to God would be narrow and few would find the gate, that many would fall away.  Why?  In the face of a God so beautiful, so loving, so majestic and awesome – how could anyone fall away from serving Him, from loving Him, from pursuing Him through all the wilderness?  It’s simple really.  People fall away from knowing God because they are unprepared – they don’t study the Word enough to prepare themselves for the hard days ahead, for the battles of fatigue, exhaustion, and storms.  Some fall away because they make bad choices and blame God for the consequences.  Others simply get way-laid by the attacks of the enemies – the literal storms – and give up.  Some don’t “employ a guide,” i.e., the Holy Spirit (see Psalm 31:3 in the Message), and a Pastor who can lead them away from calamity in their pursuit of God, can help them avoid pitfalls like offense, for example.  And oh, absentmindedness – what a dangerous and sneaky foe!  In this country of distractions, how difficult it can be to stay focused on knowing our God!  If we aren’t paying attention to the path, treacherous as it may be, we may never reach the summit to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”  Yes, to know God is a dangerous choice, an intimidating one.  It’s a choice, that like those who choose to climb mountains, may attract the negative comments of your family and friends – that it’s crazy – but it’s so worth it.      

There’s so much more rolling around in my heart to share with you – but tonight, there simply isn’t time … but as you ponder what I’ve written here for you tonight, as you dream of the mountains and sing a little Rodgers and Hammerstein, I pray that you’ll heed the warnings and embrace the challenge to immerse your life in climbing the mountain of God …   

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