Looking out over the landscape of where we live, I see a lot of flat land. That is all well and good, but who doesn’t like to see the beauty of a horizon full of tall mountains? When our boys were younger, we would try to go snow skiing every winter. Talk about a sight for eyes used to flat, dry land! Tall mountains covered with layer upon layer of white, thick snow. It was a real treat for the boys to see and enjoy. What kid can resist a good snowball fight? Or what about the fun attempt to build a sloppy snowman?
It didn’t take long for us to realize that when it came to snow skiing that Hunter Rowland was not afraid of speed, and Holt Rowland only had one speed. Hunter loved to go wide open, and Holt couldn’t help but go wide open! I believe the younger you are when you hit the slopes, the less fear you see when it comes to falling. Hunter rarely fell and when he did he popped right back up again like one of those blow up punching bags. Holt, on the other hand, knew that falling could be painful but he never really learned how to slow down and stop safely, so he just viewed falling as the natural way to put the brakes on. Still not afraid to get hurt, he barreled down each slope laughing every time he took a tumble.
The mountains, the trails, the trips we have enjoyed with family and friends throughout the years. Once we found a little ramp someone built out of snow, and it provided us with a fun way to “get some air” as we skied down a short slope. Even I joined in with the kids and got brave enough to ski over the ramp. “Come on, Mama, try it!” Holt begged. Once I got my nerve up, I gave in and skied over the ramp. I felt like I was three feet in the air when I left the ramp, but in reality I was maybe six inches. Giving in to my oldest son’s begging was really a treat, and trying to do tricks over that ramp turned out to be some of the most fun I have ever had skiing.
Lately, I have felt kind of like the mountains have moved next to me. No, it’s not all the cold weather or the snow in Atlanta. It is more the fact that I see obstacles in front of me as tall as a mountain. They are not actual obstacles that someone could pick up and move aside, more like obstacles that, in my mind, appear immovable and too big to see around. I guess I just need a good reminder that God sees my obstacles more clearly than I do, and possibly he put the mountain where it is for a purpose. Maybe it is there to block what I do not need to see on the other side. Maybe it is there for protection like a shield. Maybe it’s there just so I can see God move it. Maybe, just maybe, if I wasn’t aware of the enormity of the mountain, I would not appreciate what an amazing feat it would be to have it moved out of the way; an amazing feat that only God could do.
I feel like some people are always looking for proof that God is real. Maybe I am one of those people at times myself. Always in the back of my mind wanting to see a miracle for myself just so I have added proof to back up what I say I believe. I know that “through God all things are possible,” but I sure do love a story that reminds me it is so. Maybe that is the purpose of those mountain-sized obstacles that we all face. When God shows up, in a way that only He can, and makes a way to go through or moves that mountain, it is living proof of what the Bible says.
As I sit at the base of my mountain today and look up, I see staggering stories of unanswered questions and impossibilities of my hopes and dreams…..what is left of them. “God, I am afraid to dream and to plan,” I tell him honestly. “My plans really have not turned out much like I thought, Lord. And, most of my dreams feel shredded.”
I look around at the base of my mountain and see piles of hurt and fragments here and there of a life we are trying to rebuild. Prayers for the future have led to nothing tangible, and all I can do, at times, is sit and compare the enormity of my mountain with the inability that I possess to move it. I’m not afraid to admit it: I cannot move a mountain. I, alone, can do no more than sit at the base of it and tell God that I am completely stuck unless He does something drastic. I know He can do it; His word tells me so. I just need a reminder that it’s not the size of the mountain that God sees but the size of my faith. “Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains,” says Matthew 17:20, so imagine what faith the size of a mountain could do?
“Nothing is impossible for you. God, I believe it. I want to trust your way. You see me at the base of my mountain. You hear me yelling for help. Please give me the strength to fight discouragement when it wants to pull me under. Help me fight back by increasing my faith. When I don’t seeing you doing things to move my mountain, help me trust that you are. You made the mountains, Lord, you put mine in my path. You know the size and what it takes to go through or make a way around. You are the ramp that lifts my spirit; give me the courage to trust you to be my guide.”
The Holt Rowland Foundation…praying and waiting for the mountain to move so God can get all the credit.
