Further Thoughts From India

Shortly after my return I wrote: "There were personal lessons for me, as well.  Probably the most important one is that God has, indeed, created me with a purpose in life and has given me tasks to do."  The details of how that will work out are still coming together, but allow me to share the principle that God impressed upon me while I was over there.  It began with the connecting of two dots; two seemingly very random, disparate dots: The idea of "mountain top experiences" and my training almost 40 years ago as a US Army Infantry officer in "land navigation", or map reading and interpretation.

I may not have been listening somewhere along the line, but, to the best of my recollection, I have heard many, many times as people explained mountain top experiences, but never in the way it came together for me during my trip.  In retrospect I would say that all the explanations of mountain top experiences I have ever heard had to do with the "effect" they have on our lives.  That effect is that they "pump up" our emotions, they invigorate our committment, they charge our batteries for the work that will resume when we come down off the mountain, and, hopefully, they motivate us to do that work at a higher level than previously.

But, the problem with focussing on the effect is that the effect, being emotionally oriented, can fade over time and/or get hijacked towards the wrong ends.  The former is an experience, I think, common to people everywhere.  The best example of the latter is seen in the Biblical account in Matthew 17:

"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters­one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'"

Like most of us, I suspect, Peter's instinct was to worship the experience or the place of the experience.  But he missed the purpose.

To the best of my recollection, I have never heard anyone talk about the "purpose" of a mountain top experience.  This is where my Infantry training came into play.  In certain circumstances there is a real purpose in making the effort of going to the mountain top.  Yes, from the mountain top you see a beautiful panorama, sometimes even breath-taking.  But that isn't why you go there.  You go there because from the mountain top you gain a clearer view of where you've been and where you're going.  You can see what the terrain ahead looks like; where there may be easier routes, or where there are dangers or challenges.  From the mountain top you can get a renewed bearing on your ultimate objective, and whether there may be some intermediate objectives that will need to be accomplished.  That is the purpose of the mountain top, the reason you go up there.

For me this reaffirmed what I sense as the purpose God created me for and also helped me to have a sense of focus.  It gave me the freedom to appreciate the work that God has given others to do without feeling that I must enlist in their work, or they in mine.  It provided a stronger "yes" to my own work and a clearer "no" to those things I'm not called to do.