LIFE LESSON

This evangelical Christian author lives in Colorado and is an avid mountain climber..... 

"Climbing a mountain presents a constantly shifting point of view. At the beginning of the climb I face a sheer wall of granite - thousands of feet high. I'll never make it, I think. But as I get closer I see a thin path following seams in the rock and by taking that path, I hike comfortably up what had looked like an insurmountable cliff. As the cliff zigs and zags the view below changes as well.

At first I hike through aspen trees. Climbing higher, I notice that the aspens actually encircle an alpine lake, previously hidden - though not situated far from the beginning of the trail. Later I find that both forest and lake nestle in a lush valley dotted with lakes, meadows and other groves of trees. Later still I see that this valley fits into a cut on the side of the mountain and streams of water spilling from a lake tumble down several thousand feet to feed a river that runs through a canyon near my home twenty miles away.

Only when I reach the summit does the entire landscape fit together. Until then, any conclusions I might draw would prove mistaken".

There are some things we will never fully grasp until we reach our "life" summit, no matter how things look along our journey.  But someday, everything will make complete sense. By the way, Yancey also offers this comment about his "life" journey:

"I seldom run into visual clues that remind me of God unless I am looking. The act of looking, the pursuit itself, makes possible the encounter. For this reason, Christianity has always insisted that trust and obedience come first, and knowledge follows."