Mountaintop moments
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I spent a week in the mountains with my whole family and rarely watched the news, looked at Facebook, or thought about the world’s events. I was too busy watching my grandkids laugh and play with one another. There were a lot of things to do, see, and experience in the mountains.
A week later, it was time to come down from the mountain and get back to work.
I knew my first job was to write a blog post for the week, and this one began to write itself on the way home.
One week later
It seemed almost shocking to watch the evening news the night I arrived back home. COVID was the first news segment because our hospitals are filling up again. The politicians are making a stand and hoping to get it right. The problem is, everyone is right and wrong in different ways.
How do we make choices when right and wrong blend together?
People who didn’t get a vaccine are losing their jobs, privileges, and freedoms. People who did get a vaccine are losing their immunity, their freedoms, and their sense of safety. People who have had COVID have the most immunity but still need to get a vaccine anyway?
Whom do we blame for the spread of a virus? How does a country founded on freedoms limit freedom? How do we replace rhetoric with resolutions?
We recognize the realities and the fact that God is still on his throne, and always has been.
The mountaintop moments
I loved our week of vacation with our family. It was sweet chaos. It was a change of pace for all of us and a reminder of why God created the concept of family in the beginning. We are supposed to belong to other people in a unique bond of love. The Lord created us to need and enjoy the gift of family.
I got home, unpacked, and settled into my normal routine. I worked on emails, checked on Facebook, and turned on the evening news. The mountaintop felt far away from the “real world.” It is tough to keep a mountaintop perspective when you head home.
Part of me wishes I could just live “separate” from the evening news. Someday I will. For now, God has called us to have mountaintop moments but live “in the world.”
A new perspective that isn’t new
I was driving home when I began to think about writing this blog post. I drove through small towns and big cities. I drove past estates, homes, apartments, and trailers. I drove past people who had everything they owned in a backpack or shopping cart. I drove past people in masks and people without them. I drove past prosperity, poverty, and everything in between.
I watched the evening news and heard different opinions but few facts. I wished for the mountaintop but was glad to be home. I missed the chaos but appreciated the quiet. And I realized that the trip had given me a new perspective that isn’t new.
This world will always be “mixed up.” Truth isn’t found on the evening news because that isn’t where truth is valued—or defined.
If you completed last week’s homework assignment, reading all of Psalm 119, you read, “Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true” (Psalm 119:142). You also read, “Forever, O Lᴏʀᴅ, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89).
When will our culture put itself back together? The answer to that question is made clear in Scripture.
We will calm down, heal, be kinder, and be better when we live according to God’s righteous laws. That has always been true, and it always will be true.
What is the new perspective that isn’t new? The culture is not going to walk with God’s values. God’s people are called to do that. Some in the culture will eventually follow what “works,” but most will not. Jesus said, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14).
Biblically, we shouldn’t hope for something that God has told us will never be true. Biblically, it is God’s people who prove his reality, not the world.
Our family of faith
One of the sweetest memories I have of our trip to the mountains was listening to my seven-year-old granddaughter talk about God with her brother and cousins. I’m so grateful that my sons and their wives want their children to be faithful and are raising them with God’s word as truth.
I love that my family has chosen to be faithful. I hope and pray that all of them will continue to make biblical choices for the rest of their lives.
But, it is important to remember that Jesus didn’t say everyone in the world is our family. Our brothers and sisters are the people who share our faith and our future in heaven. Every Christian has a BIG family, and our Father would like for it to continue to grow even larger.
Make your dad proud
We had a great week in the mountains with our “family.” It is a sweet joy to see my grown sons and their wives parent their kids. There were several times I thought, “My cup runneth over,” even as my grandkids were “running over” each other! It was sweet chaos, and I’m grateful we had that time together. We are proud of our family. The Lord has a similar perspective on his kids. He has always seen us as his family. We are dearly loved and cared about.
Night is coming
Our kids put their kids to bed each night while Jim and I picked up the toys, swept the crumbs, and straightened the chairs. We wanted it to be ready for everyone when morning came.
When the world seems chaotic, remember that Scripture promised “the night is coming” (John 9:4). It’s time to get ready for whatever the next day will bring. There will always be chaos and things that need to be cleaned up and straightened out. That is the world we live in. The Christian’s job is to work hard to keep this messy world a little cleaner. Our “joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
Family is my great joy. One day the morning will come and one day I will live forever on the mountaintop with the Lord, surrounded with all of you who are family too. The chaos in the world is real, but God’s peace and love are real as well.
One day our mountaintop moments will last forever.
