"Bigger"

Recently, the four of us went hiking at Germantown Nature Reserve. It has been a long-time favorite spot of mine. I wondered how the kids would do. They did great! They loved taking this "adventure' as Anna called it. The only time Seth did not enjoy the hike was when Mommy said he was too little to walk the the rock path across the stream. He threw a fit, but Daddy rescued him and let the poor boy just be a boy (Come on, Mom, the worst that could have happened was he fall in a three inch stream and get his clothes wet and dirty). Long story short, we had a great time.

However, there was one part of the journey neither Anna nor Seth could make. They hiked down the large hill with no trouble, but what you climb down, you must climb up and therein was the problem. A big problem. It was a big incline for my long legs, but to them that hill might as well have been Mt. Everest. They could not do it. I was so proud of both of them. Instead of trying to do something they could not do, they turned to someone who could do for them what they could not do for themselves. Seth said, "Mommy, hold me." Anna said, "Daddy, can you carry me?" On our backs they went and up the hill we all went. And at the top, the kids proclaimed, "We made it!"

"We?" I was the one with sweat rushing out of every pour of my body, heart pounding and wheezing like I had emphysema...Was it "we" or "me"? My answer...it was "we." "WE" made it. Anna made it because she asked me to carry her. I made it by putting one foot in front of the other. And at the end of the day, "we" all made it.

Friends, why are you trying to climb the mountain on your own? Are you aching? Are you sweating? Are you trying and getting no where? Learn from my kids...sometimes the reason a mountain is put in front of us is not so we can struggle our way up it, but so we can learn to ask for help. "Jesus, will you carry me?" "Church family, will you hold me?" What if the mountain you cannot climb, is there not to climb, but to get you to accept what Jesus lived, died and rose again to teach us. He can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves...let HIM! Jesus said, "What is impossible with man, is possible with God."

I can see a pretty big mountain from where I am sitting right now. You know what, I am not going to take another step. I falling on my knees and asking, "Father, will carry me?"

What's that...its strength that is not my own...its hope that is beyond wishful thinking...its love that I don't deserve...yes...its, my Father carrying me where I could never go on my own.

There's plenty of room on his back for you too.