Feb. 15, 2019Sometimes the dreariness of winter can get a person down about this time of year. The excitement of Christmas and the high hopes of a renewed start in January are past. Now it feels like we just have to keep plugging away.
I pulled one of my earlier blogs from 2015 to post today. Here’s wishing you a mountain-top experience.
When I see mountains, majestic is a word that comes to mind. Not only do they look majestic, but God must be Majestic to have created them.
One day in 1972, as our family was driving over mountains, I held my two-year-old on my lap and sang “Pass It On” (written by Kurt Kaiser. You can hear it at this address:
He said “sing it again, Mommy” until we’d done it ten times. The third verse talks about shouting “from a mountaintop….I want my world to know the Lord of love has come to me. I want to pass it on.”
“Since I loved singing this meaningful song to my precious child, it’s a happy memory of a “mountaintop experience.” Another song I like about mountaintop experiences is “God on the Mountain” sung by Lynda Randle, written by Tracy Dartt. (You can hear it at this address:)
Sometimes my “mountain” or “valley” is just in my own head. If I’m feeling “up,” then I’m on the mountain. And when I’m feeling “down,” I’m in a valley. Like the songs say, sometimes I feel like shouting the news from a mountaintop that Jesus, in his love, has come to rescue me. Other times, when I’m “down in the valley,” I need to remind myself that the God I knew on a mountain is the same one who is with me in the dark night of the soul.
In a Christian's spiritual walk, it is not unusual to go through a dark valley.
Whether this valley is grief, illness, or some other tragedy, it is tempting to feel we
are all alone, that God doesn't see us or care about our happiness. Here's a song
about going through a valley. Think of the chorus as Jesus singing to you.
Through The Valley
I felt so all alone, so lost and far from home.
I looked not forward to another day.
I longed for Christ to come. I said, “Please take me home!”
Then Jesus lovingly showed me the way:
Chorus
“You must go through the valley to get to the other side.
It’s lonesome in that valley, but I will be your guide.
I know you feel I’m far away, that I don’t hear you when you pray,
but even in your valley, I am always close to you.”
The grief I could not bear without someone to care,
though Jesus promised He’d be by my side.
I could not feel His love; I wanted flesh and blood
and so I took a road that led nowhere.
Then I cried out to God. I sought him in his word;
He said, “My precious child, you are my own.
You need to cling to me. Trust me to set you free.
Just hold my hand and I will lead you home.”
Chorus
“You must go through the valley to get to the other side.
It’s lonesome in that valley, but I will be your guide.
I know you feel I’m far away, that I don’t hear you when you pray,
but even in your valley, I am always close to you.”
So now I praise His name. My Savior, still the same,
has led me forward through the sun and rain.
He’s brought me close to Him. He’s taught me how to win.
By trusting Him, I’ve learned to grow through pain.
Chorus
“You must go through the valley to get to the other side.
It’s lonesome in that valley, but I will be your guide.
I know you feel I’m far away, that I don’t hear you when you pray,
but even in your valley, I am always close to you.
Yes, even in your valleys, I am always close to you.”
.
Words & Music by Judith Vander Wege
written 1984-2006
Copyright Spokesman Ink collection #1, 2000, 2006
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