It Is Finished!

 Greetings,


Well, the "Journey In Prayer" event is over and it was a huge success! I am not sure how you rally measure the success of a prayer event but I believe that God was pleased! I write this blog with a great sense of completion. A vision that was born 5 months ago has come to pass and I give God the glory for it. Yet, as Tuesday comes and goes and I find myself two days out of this great experience I find myself struggling.

I have been on this "Journey Home" for many years now and I have just taken a week to look at my "Journey In Prayer" and I find myself wondering about my journeys. Since I have previously stated that I am on these journeys I must pause and wonder where the journey is taking me. Where do I think, wonder, or expect, these journey to lead me in my life. It is a true statement that time marches on and that each day brings us closer to something...death I suppose. Still, my mind ponders the unending possibilities of where I am going to find myself at the end of these journeys.

I suppose it is like this for all of us. Don't we stop at certain points in our life's journey simply to assess the road we are on and where that road might lead? Isn't it human nature to yearn for the answer to what or who is at the end of all of this thing we call life? I know that each time I come home from a huge mountain top experience such as a mission trip or a Christian conference I find myself full of excitement and a head full of endless possibilities. Then just as the event gets far enough away from me that I can still remember it but not feel it I find myself tumbling down that mountain top to the cold, harsh reality that I am smack dab in the middle of life again. Why can't I keep that mountain top experience inside of me? Why is that all of things I was feeling, experiencing, and sharing just a few days earlier have somehow disappeared? Why is it that emotional high that kept me going 14 hours a day last week is elusive to me? It's like trying to catch smoke in your hands!

If you have ever experienced this in your life then you know what I am talking about. It makes you question whether what you experienced was real. It makes you wonder if you will ever feel it again. On My Journey Home I have found that mountain top experiences are suppose to be that way. God brings each of us to spiritual heights from time to time. I think, it is during those times, that we catch a brief glimpse of what our faith is suppose to feel like. The reason we don't feel that way all the time is that the busyness of life clamors for our attention.

Mountain top experiences are good for the soul but it is the day to day activities where our true faith is tested. It's easy to feel the closeness of God's Spirit when our attention is focused on it. What tries men's souls is when we try to access that same Spirit in the midst of life. That is where the true nature of our faith exists. So, yes, yearn for the mountain top experience, absolutely1 Yearn for it, seek it out, enjoy it while it's there. But , when that experience ends know that God does not stay on top of the mountain. He follows you down into the valley. God's love can't stay on the mountain it's not His nature! He wants to be in the valley with you. He love's to meet you on the mountain top He's good at that kind of thing! But where God really strives, where God's true loving, compassionate, merciful, and forgiving nature shines is in the valley of our lives. On My Journey Home I have met Him in both places. It's great to see Him when I am on the top of the mountain, but I really need Him when I am not.

May this day find you seeking God in all the places of your lives. May you seek Him on the top of the mountains of your lives as well as the valleys. You will be happy to know that He is in both places. Until we speak again!

Blessings,

Derek