Everest

The Lord has frequently brought me back to this same picture of my spiritual journey, that of my ascent up a hill or mountain... Previously, I've drawn really deep pictures of the Cross sitting atop Golgotha with my footprints in the mud and muck leading up to the foot of the Cross. Since then, I've had a little bit different picture of a mountain, not much different from a hill only more difficult and more deadly. Gosh! Anyways, in these pictures of me on this mountain, I've had at different times had pictures of myself stuck on the side of a cliff, unable to go higher but unable to climb back down. There have been at times different paths up the mountain, as any mountain climber would know. On Mt. Everest for example, there are multiple tracks climbers can take up to the summit, each one with it's own challenges and obstacles and time frame with which you reach the peak. There have been storms come against me in the midst of the climb. There have been avalanches knocking me back down. There has been a river coming out of the mountain I've had to trudge through, all on my ascent to the summit.

Everybody has different mountains they climb. Mountains of personal accomplishment, of financial freedom, of religious fervor even... But these are the Kilimanjaros, the McKinleys, the T2s... Great feats and difficult mountains to climb, yet there is a mountain yet to be conquered. This is the mountain of your (and my) spiritual journey. It is our Everest. There is nothing greater in all the world. No higher accomplishment can be attained on Earth.

What's is God's goal for our lives? That we may ever rest. That we may Everest. (Sorry for the pun.) That we may come to the end of ourselves to find, in what remains, God in His Glory revealed in our lives.

I've been given this picture of me as a little boy finally pulling myself up and on top of the final ledge and then running into the arms of my Father Jesus.

I've also long held that the summit of my Everest will be where Earth and Heaven meet, very literally. I have pictured myself stepping off the top of the mountain into the clouds, into Heaven. I've pictured myself after the ascent is complete, after the embrace with the King, then turning back toward Earth with a legion of Angels at my command, ready to wage war against the Enemy of my Soul and his minions.

I can't wait for that day to come.