HIGH PLACES

HIGH PLACES

or,

SLIDING OR SOARING?

No doubt, it is easier to slide down a hill, than climb up an incline.  It can even be more fun, on a sled, or even a cardboard box!  But, life is not a toboggan run.  We do not climb hills just so that we can slide down, again. 

 Life has its peaks and valleys, for sure.  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death … Thou art with me…”  But, this is a different metaphor.  Life has its ups and downs, but one does not jump off cliffs into the void.  There are idiots with bird suits who call falling sideways “flying” but they still splatter the ground.  Let’s follow the Shepherd through the valley to the green pastures on the hillsides.

Surely, climbing  has its own rewards.  David, my snl, has a bucket list item that involves all the “fourteen-ers” in Colorado!  It is good exercise.  But, the peace on the peak is the point, I suspect.  I imagine the eagle’s nest in the craggy heights, the “aerie”, that ethereal stronghold!  Far below are the hens scratching in the yard, never looking up. On eagle’s wings the waiting-ones soar into the mist. 

Jesus speaks of two ways, one broad and easy, in my mind, leading down into the pit, the other narrow and difficult, leading upward into the clouds.    I think of Jacob’s angelic ladder, connecting earth and heaven.  To ascend those glistening stair-steps into the realm of the angels’ Master and Maker?!  Progress, pilgrim!

The “high places” were not really “good” places in Israel’s lore.  There, the unbelievers gathered sinking downward into darkness.  There, on the heights, the godless degenerated into evil.  But, on one mountain, the man of God, Elijah, met the 450!  The 300 stood in a mountain pass and withstood the Persian armies.  But, there on the Mount of Carmel, one man stood, for God, and fire came, and evil was eradicated.  The people rallied, chanting, The LORD is God!

Lord, take us to this high place!