Life Mountains

 We have all heard the song…

“She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes. 

She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes. 

She’ll be coming around the mountain, 

She’ll be coming around the mountain, 

She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes.” 

A childhood tune. A catchy repetitive tune. A tune, for some of us, that represents some of the adulthood choices we have made. Have you ever thought to yourself, “Why am I circling the same mountain…..again?” or “Why does this scenario feel familiar?” or “Same script, different cast?” We all have had a mountain or two in our lives. We all have had obstacles come whether we were expecting them or not. How we choose to handle the mountains and circumstances is entirely up to us. Do you have people in your life that you watch who make the same choices over and over? It’s like they never learn their lesson. Or maybe you are that person, and you feel like you’re circling in thesame circumstances over and over.

There is no argument that life happens unexpectedly,taking us by surprise. However, I would argue that how we choose to handle the unexpected is up to us. Things happen to us, but we can choose a different outcome. People say and/or do something to us that strongly affect our lives. How we choose to handle them is up to us. Sometimes we find ourselves experiencing the same circumstances over and over and wonder why we keep circling the same mountain with no result. God has granted us free will. I am not talking about the expected happening. I am talking about our decision to make different choices to get off the mountain or reach the top. 

“Life Mountains” can be a blessing. Learning is a blessing. Recently in my life, I went through a very difficult “tunnel”that led me to a “life mountain.” The tunnel revealed a lot about me and a lot about those around me. The “life mountain” represented surrender. I remember telling my friend, “I feel like I already went through learning about surrender. I don’t understand why God would want me to learn this again.”

You can ALWAYS learn something.

When you approach life thinking, you will only have to learn about something once; you have already set yourself up to be discouraged. To gain the most out of your choices and “life mountains,” you must ask yourself, is there anything else I can learn in this?

Is there anything I am missing or missed last time? We can circle a mountain on purpose, but the scenery changes as you go higher. In my example, I had to learn in phases how to surrender things to God. He knew He could not teach me in one 15-minute message that I need to surrender it all and have this jaw-dropping, life-altering moment. There were different stages of surrendering I had to learn. There were different things I needed to surrender at different times in my life. I was willing to learn, which is why I did not have to circle that “life mountain” for a long time. 

Don’t make excuses as to why you are on the mountain.

 In today’s society, it is always easy to look at and point out all of the reasons or people that are why we are, where we are, on the mountain. If we choose not to evaluate ourselves, or our choices, or even our dos and don’ts on this “life mountain,” then we will, for sure, be stuck circling, not learning what God wants to teach us.

Someone may have hurt your feelings, and now you haveto learn to forgive on this “life mountain”……AGAIN. Now,if you continually think about how they hurt you, why they didn’t say I’m sorry, how you are going to get even, and why it’s not your fault, you will be going around that mountain, again and again, not learning what God has for you.

We can experience deep pain on a “life mountain,” yet we still need to look internally and ask, am I supposed to learn something about myself or others? That question is different from making excuses and/or blame-shifting. Questions are always a great thing to ask God. He wants us to ask Him questions because He wants to give us His answer. 

 Always be listening for God to speak.

 When we find ourselves ready to learn, ready and willing not to make excuses, then we need to be listening and ready for God to speak to us about this “life mountain.”Sometimes God will reveal something that we saw coming from our friend, Holy Spirit. Other times we may feel like it came from left field, and we had no idea that that was something we needed to hear from God. God’s timing is always better than ours. God’s ways are always better than ours. We must be ready when He speaks so that we can grab ahold of it and not toss it aside. When God speaks and provides direction, and we choose to do our own thing, guess what will most likely happen…. “She’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes….” God speaks on purpose and in purpose. We must be ready to listen and pay attention. I have circled mountains due to my own choices and due to God presenting it again to me. I now always try to be ready to learn, not blame shift, and listen attentively for Him to reveal something to me about this “life mountain.”

We are human, and we will not always get it right. We will make mistakes. We will not hear right, or we will hear right from God and still choose to fuel our flesh. God’s grace and mercy come into play and provides an opportunity to re-learn it again. Yet, who really likes to learn the same lesson over and over and over again? Can you imagine going to school and learning the same lesson plan every single day? It would drive you crazy, and rightfully so. But what would you choose to do in that scenario? Strive for the A+? Would you see if there is something you missed the day prior during that lesson? Or maybe blame the teacher for not having enough good material? What about “bashing” the teacher to your friends because they gave you a C+ when you felt you earned a better grade? There are so many scenarios that could play out here. 

What would you choose?

What do you choose to do on your “life mountain”?

What will you choose to do now on your “life mountain”?

The most important thing to remember is that God isALWAYS for us! He wants us to succeed in life. He wants us to be blessed. He wants us to have joy. But He also wants us to listen to Him. As a parent wants their child to listen the first time, so they do not have to be disciplined or learn the hard way, so God wants for us, His children. Circling the mountain is not always a bad thing, it is how we choose to deal with it that is the key. 

Albert Einstein once said,

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Let’s not be those people, but if we do circle the same mountain, let’s learn what we are supposed to so that we do not have to keep circling it, again and again, more than we have to. 

Proverbs 16:16 

How much better to get wisdom than gold and good judgment than silver!

 

Isaiah 41:9-10

“I have called you back from the ends of the earth saying, ‘You are my servant.’

For I have chosen you and will not throw you away. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am yourGod. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.