Lenten Reading Reflection Week 3 – The Mountain
By Bryan Bliss, Associate for Cradle to Career
I spent 20 years working in youth ministry. Throughout that time, I quickly realized that “mountain top experiences” sold. Big time. The ability to create transformative—if not emotional—experiences for teenagers was something that churches of all stripes were willing to pay for, because they did what many churches were unable to do. Namely, they broke through the daily malaise and helped students experience the divine. Now, you could argue about the effectiveness, or even the intent. I certainly did. But in a growing post-Christian world, I am hesitant to push back on anything that helps somebody experience the Divine. Because that experience—engineered or not—comes with the sort of risk that most of us have completely cut out of our lives.
A true mountain top experience is fundamentally rare. It comes upon you suddenly, like a storm you can’t avoid. You don’t have time to plan for it. You don’t have a chance to plot a safe outcome. You react; you experience it. And I honestly believe that most of us, if we’re being honest, hope that it doesn’t completely knock us off our feet.
Because a mountain top experience is disruptive. It shakes our foundations and sometimes even brings buildings crumbling to the ground. But I think it also reminds us that we are resurrection people— rebuilding people. And the power and the energy of the mountain top pulses through us, giving us life and a sense of direction that we are unable to get anywhere else, an energy that helps us move through the valleys until it comes time to climb the next mountain looking for hope and renewal.
I used to tell the teenagers, after a great week of camp or a mission trip, that there’s a reason we didn’t live on the mountain. It’s not sustainable, for one. But more so, I think the topography of our lives requires the climbs and the descents, not because God plans or requires us to suffer or to live outside of the wonder of these moments. Instead, it’s the gift of having a heart and a mind that can be changed when we least expect it. To feel the earth under our feet, slowly rising—our heart rates climbing as the air gets thinner—and think, “I wonder what God is going to do next?”