I have only been to Utah once. It was during the week of the playoff matchup between the Bulls and the Jazz in the summer of 1998. I had never seen the mountains like I saw them there near Salt Lake City. They were enormous. They were beautiful. It definitely made me feel small.
Those mountains are not even big by comparison with many others in the US. That same summer I went to Colorado and was with a group that drove up Pikes Peak. Oy. I don’t think I realized that it could be 90 degrees at the bottom of the mountain and in the 30 degree range at the top. So, needless to say, I didn’t get out of the van for long. The elevation also got to me and I fell asleep. That was a big mountain. I almost thought we were going to crash on the way down from that one. The driver smoked the brakes for all they were worth!
I remember those mountains well. They were big and I am small. This is how the problems of life feel to me sometimes. They are so big. So formidable. So unscaleable. Or so it seems. They overwhelm me at times and it is all I can do to stand, let alone fight and climb.
Then, I get a fresh reminder of reality at church this morning at Lifechurch.tv. Pastor Craig Groeshel has been speaking on Toxic things in our lives. This morning was about Toxic words. Words have the power of life and they have the power of death. It just depends on how they are used. The old saying is not true. Sticks and stones will break your bones…and words can hurt even worse. Here are the words that got me:
I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Mark 11:23
My God is bigger than the mountains. The problems may be big, but my God is bigger. This God lives in my heart. How often do I forget that? So, I can move forward with confidence. I will pray with my legs. I will pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on me. I will trust the words God has spoken that He wants good for me and not evil. I choose to believe.
Mountain, it is time for you to move.
David Willis 