Come, Let’s Go Up To The Mountain!

By Kathy Malone

There is an inscrutable quality about mountains in the way that they capture the human spirit, drawing us like moths to flame. We tread up and onward without ever really knowing why we aspire to their heights. Moved by those towering peaks, we find ourselves daring to hope for something noble and everlasting. Clearly, there is something at work, an intangible force that stirs our desire to slip from what the poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. describes as “the surly bonds of Earth.” because we were created for those heights. Ephesians 2:5-6 says, “Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace! He raised us up with Christ the exalted One, and we ascended with him into the glorious perfection and authority of the heavenly realm, for we are now co-seated as one with Christ!”

As we stand at the foot of a mountain gazing up at its sheer face, we’re reminded of our own insignificance in the grand scheme of things. And yet as a Christian, I feel both diminished and inspired by the smallness of my own stature measured against the scale and scope of God’s magnificent creation. My fascination with mountains began 20 years ago when I read a book authored by Jon Krakauer, called Into Thin Air In it, he shared his account of a deadly storm that took the lives of 12 people as they struggled to summit the 29,032 foot peak of Mount Everest. Each year hundreds of climbers gather at base camp to begin their upward journey into what’s called the “dead zone,” 26,000 feet above sea level. At this elevation, oxygen levels are insufficient to sustain life, putting climbers at risk of an extreme form of mountain sickness called high altitude pulmonary edema. Exposure in the “death zone” is heightened because of the deadly traffic jams created by hundreds of climbers packed along the ridge waiting for an opportunity to summit.

Our longing for that high, holy place is right and pleasing to God. Our challenge, though, is to be vigilant in the way that we endeavor to attain it.

A few years ago, God highlighted these words from Isaiah 2:3, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD . . . that we may walk in His paths.” These words stirred me to embrace His plan for a mountain journey. And so began a whole new adventure which included selling my home in the city and moving to the mountains!

Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace!

I have since likened this journey to stumbling along a precipiceon a path paved in faith. There are times when it feels as though my life will be lost in an avalanche. And other times, I struggle to take a step for fear of losing my footing. I have learned, along this path, that I’m easily tempted to depend on my natural sight and my own abilities rather than depending on God’s hand. And though the journey is challenging, God is using it to teach me how to trust. “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:19)

I am deeply perplexed by the mystery that motivates people to summit mountains at the risk of losing their lives. So why do they do it? Why do they risk everything to stand on the world’s highest pinnacle?

This willingness may just be indicative of something deeply embedded in the soul of man. Human beings are unique among God’s creation, for we alone were made to live with Him in heaven in loving, intimate relationship for all eternity. As image bearers of God, we are imbued with a deep desire to pursue those heights

We aren’t wrong in our desire to occupy that place for which we were designed. What is wrong, are any efforts to traverse those heights in our own strength. Like the climbers on Everest, we too must pass through the “death zone.” But for us it’s a good and necessary death – a death to self-sufficiency and self-determination, a death to our strength and our own best plans. A death that leads to life. In the end, the only mountain that will stand is God’s holy mountain. And by His strength, may we slip “the surly bonds of Earth” to “touch the face of God.”

Kathy Malone lives in Clayton with her pup Molly. After college, she earned her first real paycheck through active duty service in an Air Force service band as a featured vocalist. After separation, she worked as a studio musician in Atlanta, and was hired by Delta Airlines as a performing artist supporting corporate events in Atlanta, New York and London. Kathy eventually entered into full-time ministry serving as a worship leader, and a production and communications manager where she developed her technical skills in web and graphic design as well as video production and editing. Kathy enjoys her work with as a web designer, as well as writing, cooking, eating, reading, gardening, the cinema, and spending time with family and friends.