Give me this mountain

Well, this weekend I had a fun and exciting trip up into the mountains with a large group of singles from my area. We stayed in one of our friend's exquisite cabins, which is nearly twice the size of my house and has a theatre room filled with love sacs. Ah, heaven.

But anyway, while we were up there I had the chance to go snowshoeing with a few of my friends. Can I say that I love being out in nature. There's something so calming and peaceful about being in the wild, listening to the wind blow through the trees and knowing that there are hardly any souls around to bother you.

As we were making a trail and trudging through rather deep snow up a steep part of the mountain, I had the temptation to turn back and say, "Well, I've had my adventure. This is too hard. I'm done."

But then I had the thought that, no, I can't turn back now. I tend to give up too easily. If something doesn't come my way in the time I want, it's such a temptation for me to give it all up. Well, I never really give up, but I always want to. There's something in me that keeps me going, some dogged determination, though I'm still not sure where it comes from. As we were climbing, that determination sparked in me again and I didn't turn back, no matter how tempting it was.

Then as we continued climbing I thought back to a story in the Bible someone once shared with me. An ancient prophet in Israel, faced with daunting odds and a fierce uphill climb, said to God, "Give me this mountain." Instead of backing down when things got a little tough, he kept going. Determined, he asked for the challenges he would face because he knew that if he passed through them successfully, his life would be richly blessed.

So, walking through the snow as we approached the peak I said in my heart, "Give me this mountain, Lord. Give me these challenges because I need them to learn and grow."

I know the challenges I am now faced with are really difficult for me, more difficult than anything I've ever passed through before. But I also know that if I am successful and make it to the top of my mountain, the view will be amazing and I will thank God that he didn't let me give up when it all seemed too hard.

And so as I looked out over the valley that day as we reached the top, I saw something amazing and I felt a peace that I would never have found if I hadn't climbed my mountain. It was worth it, in the end. I just had to keep going until I could see how far I'd truly come.