Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

• Mark 9:9

“We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities: they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. But what about the devil-possessed world? Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.
“The intellectualist or dreamer who by his dreams of isolation is not made fitter to deal with actual life, proves that his dreams are mere hysterical drivel. If his dreams only succeed in making him hold aloof from his fellowmen, a visionary who deals only with things belonging to the mountaintop, he is self-indulgent to a degree. No man has any right to be a spectator of his fellowmen; he ceases to be in touch with reality. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, and the mountains are meant for inspiration and meditation; but a man is taken there only in order that he may go down afterwards among the devil-possessed and lift them up …
“If we cannot live in the demon-possessed valley, with the hold of God on us, lifting up those who are down by the power of the thing that is in us, our Christianity is only an abstraction.”

• Oswald Chambers, Daily Thoughts for Disciples (January 1, from Shadow of an Agony)

I read this devotion from Oswald Chambers, and I think of two songs, Down in the Valley and God of the Mountain.  One song speaks of hanging your head over and hearing the wind blow.  The other assures us that the God of the mountains is still God in the valley.

As Chambers says, we need to prove our mettle.  We need to pay our dues.  I see these youngsters graduate college and demand a job worth what they think they deserve.  They want to immediately be placed on the mountain without paying their dues.  And sadly, many are given such jobs.  I can remember being the manager in charge of instructor certification.  While they could not do their jobs unless they met my requirements and I had to sign their certification paperwork, I was being paid less than each one of the newly hired instructors in the class. Sometimes paying your dues means you suffer indignities like that.

But we first must consider who we are as Christians.  We are sinners saved by Grace.  If we got what we deserved there would be nothing but coal in our Christmas stocking.  Frankly, if I could get the equivalent of that coal in natural gas, I might be warm this winter.

Second, we must understand that we are to glorify God in everything and it is far too easy to glorify God in the good times – unless we just forget.  In the bad times, we blame God.  So, accounting for forgetting God in the good time and blaming God in the bad times, when do we glorify God?

The deal is, even when you are in a valley of your life and you thank God for the corrections that were made and the reminder to not forget, we need even more such tests of faith and redirecting our focus.  We need time in the valley to build those habits and muscles.

And when we get that occasional mountain experience, we are more appreciative and less likely to forget.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.