Mountain Top Experiences
There is nothing like a mountain top experience. Whether it be the views from Whistler Mountain in the Canadian Rockies, Montserrat in the Spanish Alps, or even the Mount Lofty Summit viewing platform (after a hike up from Waterfall Gully or a drive up the leafy summit road), the views are always amazing. One can’t help but admire God’s glorious creation.
Being Transfiguration Sunday this coming Sunday, most Christian communities will be hearing stories about a couple significant mountain top experiences. One will be about Moses on top of Mount Sinai where he encountered ‘the glory of the Lord’ and received the ten commandments. The second will be that of Jesus on top of a high mountain where his appearance was transfigured and ‘shone like the sun’, and then Moses and Elijah also appeared with him.
The thing about mountain top experiences is that they don’t last for very long. We enjoy them for a while and then it’s back down into the valley or trenches with the complexities and problems of everyday life. Moses came down the mountain to find that the people had built a golden calf and were worshiping it. Jesus came down the mountain to be approached by people complaining that the disciples couldn’t heal them.
It is the mountain top experiences which we can look back at though, that often help us to get through the trenches of everyday life. When the apostle Peter wrote to encourage churches, he pointed to the transfiguration and the resurrection as proof that Jesus is king. It is because of these historical truths that people can trust God and continue to follow him, despite the grind of everyday life.
What spiritual mountain top experiences have you had? An unexpected healing? A restored relationship? Coming safely through what you thought would be an impossible situation? Or was it simply standing on top of a mountain and admiring God’s glorious creation? Its these moments of when we clearly saw God’s glory shone into our lives (and the lives of others) that we can cling to as we deal with the muck and mire of everyday life. Those moments remind us that God has never left us, and that when we are at our weakest that he can become strong in us. God always WAS. God always WILL BE. And God always IS walking alongside us. May your spiritual mountain top experiences remind you of that. But if that is a struggle for you, cling to the words of Jesus himself, ‘surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’.
May you enjoy all the blessings of working and serving in Lutheran education. But when you have to deal with the muck and mire of your role, may you remember that Jesus walks with you to equip and encourage you, and to provide you with a sense of hope.
Stuart Traeger
Spiritual & Cultural Leader
