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Mountain Tops and Valley Floors (Mark 9:9-29)
Every Christian should have mountain top experiences. Sometimes we look for them at a Convention or Bible Week, those times of refreshing and renewal. Sometimes they come at the most unexpected moments, during an ordinary church service or prayer meeting. Peter, James and John went up an ordinary mountain, perhaps expecting to pray with Jesus as they had done many times before, but this time was different. You can imagine them thinking, "Who would have thought that this climb would change everything?"
We, too, can come away in wonder at what God has done quite unexpectedly, just because we stepped aside to spend time with Jesus. But like the disciples we come down from the mountain and, though everything has changed for us, we find at the bottom of the mountain that things are much the same. Looking at the text we see that the three immediately encounter people arguing (v.14), unbelief (v.19), lack of understanding (v.28), and faltering hope (v.22). Life goes on!
There is a school of thought - I may have mentioned it before - that insists the true Christian, who believes with all their heart, will encounter mountaintop experiences all the time. This Christian will soar from peak to peak hardly noticing, let alone experiencing, life on the valley floor. The valley floor, according to some, is where the weak in faith walk stumblingly towards the City of God while those with "real faith" soar above. Remember this - even Jesus came down the mountain.
The Christian life is not a course in mountaineering but a school of orienteering. We do not specialise in mountain terrain but use God's guidance to negotiate all sorts of terrain in the Christian walk. It could be hills, it is often valleys, it is sometimes mountains, but in each God has a lesson for us to help us exercise our faith and move on with him. The disciples still had so much to learn in the valley and so do we.
This week let's not despise our experiences on the valley floor, or envy those we imagine are soaring right now. Perhaps the lesson they need has taken them to the mountaintop, and maybe the lesson God has for you is here in the valley floor. Is it a day of small things? Don't despise it for God has great plans (Zech.4:10). Is it a time of testing? Don't despair but press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of you (Philip.3:12). Is there work to be done here in the valley? Of course! For the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few (Mat.9:37) and there is to be a harvest even of your own righteousness that is garnered and stored up as you serve where God has put you (2 Cor.9:10).