You’ve all been there. To the top. To the place where life is easier to see. Problems seem distant. Challenges seem possible. The place where spirits rise and troubles fall away.
Years ago I stood on the summit of Mount Ranier after a long climb over the glaciated shoulders of that great peak. On that clear day it appeared the whole world was below me. There was a sense of triumphalism partnered with awe. It was a great moment. And then … I descended. As spectacular as it was I realized no one was living on the peak. Everyone went down. 100 percent of all those who summitted also returned to the valley far below.
So it is for us all when life treats us to one of those occasional mountaintop events. They all end with a “coming down” time. That’s where I am this week following some time away last week, first, in the California desert where I visited with my parents and played golf in the warm sunshine, then at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego, and finally, over the weekend, with the Marines of Marine Aircraft Group 46 at MCAS Miramar north of San Diego. It was only a week but each day was fully well spent.
It’s true what is often said about spending time away from our regular routines. “It takes a week to wind down from it all.” As I re-enter life and ministry here I have often caught myself re-living moments from last week. A great tee shot (there was one), a speaker, a song, soaking up some sun, seeing old friends.
What I am beginning to understand about de-compressing is that there is no regular way to do it. In my case I stepped off the airplane into a drizzly late evening and took it from there. What else can we do? We go forward. We come down. We re-enter our routines and our relationships. And perhaps we are slightly changed by having been to the top of something, a mountain, our emotions, our mind, our God. So we come down different than when we went up. That, I suppose, is renewal. But coming down it doesn’t feel like renewal. It feels rougher, jagged and out of step.
The Bible speaks of how we are “transformed by the renewing of our minds” as we present ourselves to God. It strikes me this week that this life we live is chock full of renewing moments and it is possible that we are very often attempting to re-enter life as we have previously known it. We have a mountaintop time with our spouse or child but have to show up the next morning at work. The symphony touched us in way that truly transformed something within us, but the dishes are waiting at home. A speaker, maybe even a sermon, creates a new space in our hearts, a space for God, and now we have clean the garage. We are constantly going up mountains only to have to turn around and come down to where we live.
This week, as I come down again, I am discovering that the up and down of this life just might be the lesson I need the most. I love the peak experiences however I need to come to love how the peaks intersect with the valley and the slight transforming that is constantly at play in my life. Namely, that God doesn’t leave all the renewal work for the mountaintops. Much of it seems to happen upon re-entry as well.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley …” We all do at some point.
See You Sunday,
Steve Weber, pastor