MOUNTAINS OF GOD

TODAY: Help others with their climb. Donations to UMCOR’s “South Asia Emergency” relief efforts can be placed in the Good Shepherd offering plates or send directly to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Designate checks for UMCOR Advance #274305 and “South Asia Emergency.” Online donations can be made at www.Methodist Relief.org. Those making credit card donations can call 800-554-8583.

Mountains have always played an important part in my life. This past August my husband and I were hiking on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska and surrounded by amazing mountains. It was glorious! In October, we spent days awed by the Andes Mountains in Chile as we traveled south to the St. Raphael Glacier. As a teenager, with a friend, I climbed and was lost for 24 hours on Mt. Fuji in Japan, but without fear. The Japanese took care of us. I never fail to feel the presence of God in mountains, and my own sense of smallness in relationship to God’s larger scheme of things. Mountains help me to balance me in the world.

Mountains have always played an important part in the religious life of the world: the North American Indians have mountains that are sacred to them. The Hindu Yogi seeks inner knowledge in the seclusion of lofty peaks. The Tibetans believe that the Himalayan Mountains contain the dwelling places of the spirits. The Chinese place their western heaven in the Kwellin Mountains.

Today, in our modern world, we seek religious values in busy places. To many of us, our temple is the marketplace. We forget how Jesus often withdrew from the multitudes and went into the mountains to pray and commune with God. I find that I often need time and space in my frantic world to do the same, yet I seldom seek it out. But mountains give me faith, and they give me hope. God’s creation is unavoidable if we lift our eyes to the mountains. Our challenge today is to find the mountains we can climb in our everyday lives.

My father, an Army chaplain, often preached about three mountain peaks of God: the Mountain Peaks of Faith, Hope and Love. Climbing these three mountain peaks is frequently more challenging than any physical ascent, but as Christians, in our small ways, we try. Climbing one of these three mountain peaks may be no more than a kind word, a smile or a loving hug. Clouds cover the peaks, but our faith, hope and love can lead us up.

— Carlene Reinhart

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist