To Move a Mountain......

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us the assurance about thing we cannot see”.....  Hebrews 11:1 NLT

“I cannot do this....”  That’s exactly what I said.  I was on the side of a mountain and completely stuck in my heart, my mind and my body.  My legs were cramping, my feet hurt. I had pulled a muscle in a very delicate place and it seemed with every step that muscle yelled at me to just sit down and stop. That morning when I had arrived, I thought I was only going to be “walking around and not up” this mountain, and by now I had been climbing all day was just ready to quit.  The problem with this situation was that I still had to get the rest of the way down.  Trust me when I say, I calculated the cost of having a helicopter come and get me.  I could see the lower trail head and even the parking lot with my eyes, but the path to get there seemed so very far away.

We have all been there... in that place where what we hope for is just in sight.  That place where we reach our arms out to touch it, and find that we still need a few more steps to get there.  Those steps seem to take so very long and the distance seems so far.  

What we do with that moment of “almost there” doesn’t define our faith... I think it creates room for a greater measure of faith. 

God’s great big love takes the faith that we have and the honesty that we bring into that moment, and breaths life into it.  His love becomes the foundation and His mercy secures the spots that are weak.  His voice speaks the truth into places where we doubt our steps.   

I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Noah to build an ark when the world have never known rain.  Splinters, bruises, aching muscles, and getting all those animals settled in. 

Let’s also not forget the voices of doubt, both inside his own mind and from those who watched him.  Voices that said, “What are you doing?”... “Why are you doing this crazy thing?” 

Noah was building something that had never been seen before for a reason that had only been spoken of as a promise and a destiny.  He had to make a daily choice to believe that promise and that destiny.  He had to make a choice to listen to a greater voice than even his own at times. He had to grab onto the promise of hope and the confidence that what he had heard and seen in his heart was true.  He had to walk in the assurance that, while the distance seemed so far away in the natural, he would get there.

How many times have I listened to my own voice and missed the mark?  I imagine that number is more than I would like to admit.....  

On my own journey to get down the mountain, I had someone come along side me.  They didn’t have to, they chose to slow down and stay with me.  Encouraging me to stay on course and keep going.  When I needed to rest, they rested with me and did not mock me for my need to do so.  They listened as I shared my honest pain and doubt and helped me laugh into the moment, get up and press through.  They were there to lend their strength, their belief and their hope to me and help me get to my own finish line in the journey.  And when I arrived at the bottom of the mountain, they cheered me on as if I were the first to arrive.  I know without a doubt that I would not have made it without the gift of this person walking along side me.  They gave a concrete voice to God’s love for me in that moment, and a belief in my ability to finish what I had begun.

That journey changed something in side of me. It created a space for faith to grow.  For assurance and confidence to speak into my moments of doubt.   

I want to remember listen to the voice of love as it strengthens and gives me assurance that I am on the right path.  

But even more... I want to be a voice that brings faith to someone else who is struggling in their own journey to the promise.  To be used by love to speak faith, hope, assurance, confidence and most of all kindness.  Today find someone to speak into.  Today find someone that needs some extra faith and breath into it with the great big love of God.  Help them create a space for that love to work in and grow.  To cheer them on when they have reached their destination.  

Be that person today.  Be that voice.