Mountains and Valleys

Where are you right now: on a high or in a low?  Are you thrilled with the season of life you’re experiencing at the moment? Or are you weary and discouraged by the people and events in your life? Mountains or valleys?

There’s something about mountains. Crisp air, clear skies, and a view extending for countless miles. Mountains are for inspiration. For gaining perspective beyond our usual scope. But we aren’t made to live on snow-and-ice-covered mountaintops. The decreased oxygen leads to altitude sickness: burning lungs, skyrocketing blood pressure, and pounding headaches. Not the best way to spend our days.

Valleys are different. Daily life happens in the valleys. We may see meandering rivers, inviting fields of vibrant flowers, and farms laden with fruits and vegetables ripe for harvest. But valleys are also the setting for disappointment, discouragement, and despair. Valleys are where we do the messy work of life.

The Disciples’ Experience

Three of the gospel writers recorded how Peter, James, and John witnessed this comparison firsthand. The three disciples accompanied Jesus up a high mountain. There they witnessed His transfiguration . . . and His conversation with Moses and Elijah.

This glorious mountaintop encounter was sandwiched between two valley experiences. Luke 9:22-28 tells us the Transfiguration occurred eight days after Jesus predicted His death and warned His disciples that they “must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (v. 23).

And Mark noted that when they came down from the mountain and returned to the other disciples, they faced a new challenge. In Mark 9, we learn they came down to an argument between the religious elite and a crowd. A man had brought his possessed son to the other nine disciples for healing, but they could not do it. But Jesus . . . Jesus arrived and accomplished what the disciples could not do.

Peter, James, and John were present to witness it all. The valley of Jesus’s prediction of His death. The glory of Jesus’s transfiguration. And Jesus’s display of power and authority back again in the valley. Experiences they treasured and ultimately shared for our encouragement today.

Are you in a valley at the moment? Struggling with the day-to-day drudgery of life. Wishing for a mountaintop view. Or maybe you’re on a mountaintop, relishing the exhilaration and the inspiration, wanting to remain there indefinitely.

Take the exhilaration of the mountaintop seasons with you into the valleys. Allow the times of inspiration to energize you for the work necessary in the valley. And always remember that the same Holy Spirit who inspires you in the midst of mountaintop experiences is the one who never leaves you nor forsakes you in the valleys.