Standing On The Mountain Top

I had a WONDERFUL day today!  To someone else it may sound boring, but today, I had a rare opportunity to be alone in the apartment and simply enjoy the presence of the Lord.

I watched the weekly message at In Touch, downloaded some awesome Christian music from the Newsboys, Greater Vision, and Mark Schultz--each one wonderful artists that in their own musical venue draw me closer to the Lord and give me songs to praise Him with.

Last night I sat down with my journal, which I haven't done in quite some time, and wrote down how things were going.  In just a few minutes, I compiled a list of 63 blessings the Lord has poured out within the last year or so.  I'm sure I could think of many more with additional thought.

I say that not to brag but because last night I was also going through some of my old journal entries going back to 2007.  The last several years have been filled with hardships, pain and trials.  Many of my own making through poor decision making, some simply the result of the inevitabilities of life (and death).  No one but God can really understand the depth of another person's pain, and even if I tried to describe some of the things that have occurred over the years and how painful they were, it's just words to another person.

I can remember many times of crying out in anger to the Lord.  Of bursting into tears from unbearable frustration at hardships that seemed never to end.  Of unbearable grief in saying goodbye to family members I never imagined would die before I did.

But last night and today, I've had a chance to reflect on those times and on the present.  And it didn't hit me until this afternoon, while enjoying this rare quiet time alone with God, that I was the person standing on the mountain top.

One of Steven Curtis Chapman's recent songs talks about the fact that we're going to have some mountains to climb and some valleys we're going to go through.  I'd been in the valley for a long time, and slogging up the mountain for an equally long time.

But today, I felt I was literally standing on the mountaintop and rejoicing with the sheer joy of knowing the Lord.

That thought is both exhilarating and sobering.  There will be more valleys to go through.  More mountains to climb.

But I hope when those valleys come I will remember the sheer joy of today, of remembering how awesome it was to be still and quiet before the Lord, praising Him for all He has done.