Mountain Climbing is for Dummies

You’ll have to forgive my nearly month-long silence. I would like to give you all a really good excuse, like I broke 9 out of 10 fingers in a freak skiing accident, or I’ve been buried in top-secret peace talks between North and South Korea, but that wouldn’t be the truth.

Or even really believable.

I have been really busy, and that’s the truth. And hey, I’m here, you’re here-let’s get this blog started! (And I promise to try to be more consistent if you promise to bear with me).

Tuesdays are my fast days. It’s my day, set apart for the Lord, when I pray over some of the things in my life that I feel need an extra push-specifically, the things I’m sure with never happen if I don’t pray over them. It’s amazingly rewarding, and really, really hard. One of the things that’s I’ve noticed over the past 9 months that I’ve been doing this is that God really talks to me on those Tuesdays. So it should come as no surprise that God chose yesterday to have a nice, friendly chat with me. I even had a cup of coffee.

Yesterday, after our weekly staff meeting/worship session (perks of being a missionary, peeps) I went outside on the balcony to get some air. I had been praying, and while it hadn’t been super intense, I just felt like I needed to breathe.

Spread out before, in this breathtaking way, was the sun setting behind Popo(catptl; really big volcano, for the uninitiated). It was amazing; the colors, the scope, the cloud formations-indescribable. I was awed by the view, which was so rich that I’m not even trying to do it justice with my words, because I know I couldn’t.

Seeing the volcano made me think about my recent trek up the Malinche, a local mountain that insane people like to climb for fun. If you’re guessing from my adjective choice I’m not a mountain climber, you are correct. And yet, somehow, I keep ending up climbing mountains in real life. Prophetic somehow? I don’t doubt it, and I’m about to tell you why.

My most recent climb up the Malinche was horrible. It was raining, it was wet, my lungs were burning, my legs were aching, the stupid mountain went up FOREVER-the list goes on and on. I absolutely hated every single second of it, and I’m not exaggerating. I wanted to turn around and go back to the nice, warm building about 10 minutes into the trek. I had no pride; I just wanted to stop, and the only reason I kept going was because they wouldn’t let me go back down by myself (something about getting lost, possible death in the woods, blah blah blah. Did not care.) Everyone passed me, and by the time I finally got to the halfway point-we couldn’t go any higher; the weather was that bad-I was 3/4ths dead and was reduced to a jelly-legged heap on a rock. I almost cried.

How is this prophetic, you may ask?

I feel like this whole climbing mountains nonsense is a lot like my relationship with God, right down to the jelly-legs. I’m on this journey up the mountain with God. Going uphill already sucks, but going up a mountain? It’s hard (please note the understatement here)! Every step of the way, I want to give up, or go back down-go backwards, or just stay where I am because I like it there-it’s dry and my legs hurt. And God is like David Acosta-who I may never forgive-spent the majority of that day telling me “Keep going, Alisha!” “Just a little further.” “Have some M&Ms” (for the record, M&Ms are nourishing to the body and the soul). He didn’t give up on me, and he wouldn’t let me give up on me, either.

I’m not saying that it’s God’s only job to be our cheerleader (because it’s so totally not), but sometimes I think it’s important to remember that you’re going up a mountain. Some parts are steeper than others. Some have rocks. Sometimes you fall down the steep parts, land on the rocks, and have to get your bruised self up again (ask me how I know). But my point is, it’s a journey, an upward progress, that we will struggle with until we go to be with Him.

However, you’re not in it alone-you have a guide. If you let Him, the Lord will lead you on a journey specifically tailored to you, giving you tasks that you are uniquely suited and gifted for you. And while it’s an uphill battle, you have someone to fight for you, to help you climb the steep parts, and watch out for rocks. Someone to help you up when you fall.

So really, spiritual mountain climbing is a heck of a lot easier than real mountain climbing.

By the way, if anyone has any questions for me, or wants to know how they can specifically bless me or my girls, please contact me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alisha.tomsen.