So one day for ministry, Gresom had us head out to Janakpur, the district next to Kathmandu. So we all piled onto a bus and rode through Kathmandu to the very edge of the city until we reached the last stop. We got off the bus, and just stared at the steep road leading up the mountain. It had to be more than a 45 degree angle up the hill (fun fact: Nepali natives call the mountain we were about to climb a “hill”. We protested saying, “Do you see the size of these things, what are you talking about ‘hills’? They’re definitely mountains.” Because those are the mountains we have in the States, you know? But Gresom and Suraj just shook their heads and answered a bit bemusedly that no, this was in fact a hill. I didn’t understand why they were so adamant about it until we went to Gorkha, but that’s a story for another blog *wink*).
Anyways, so we make it up the incline aroudn 20 minutes later, and we reach this area at the top where there was a break in the trees and we get up there and it’s just like woah. Because we’re staring out into the hugest valley with mountains all around.
So we head down, it takes all in all literally about 3 hours to get all the way down the mountain and into the valley and through to the pastor’s church, and the whole time I’m just admiring the view, but in the back of my mind this thought is just running through my head that I am going to have to climb back up this mountain, and it’s going to be a heck of a lot harder than heading down it.
We get to the church, worship for a while, then four of us preach and share our testimonies, we stay a bit then say goodbye, and start heading back. And halfway up the mountain, our guide tells us, “Hey, let’s take a shortcut!” And I’m no fool, the only short cut up a mountain is going to be a path that’s very direct, and a path very direct up a mountain means it’s gonna be a path steep as heck. But as our guide pulls back the leaves to reveal a thin little footpath up, we kind of shrug and shuffle forward because hey, it’s going to start to get darker within another hour and we want to get back to the house, and we can handle it right?
Ha ha ha ha, yeah no.
This little footpath wound its way up the mountain, natural steps on rock and straight up. I used my hands to hoist myself up a lift a couple times, and was almost crawling at others. I was dying. In India we hadn’t been able to go out of the compound so we couldn’t go running. I’m still fairly fit but even so, jumping from not having to do anything more strenuous than walking for a month and a half to climbing a freaking mountain was going to be difficult.
But as I’m hiking up this mountain, I’m reminded of something. That morning, I had been sitting with God, praying and listening for Hisdirection. Something I had wanted to grow in during Nepal was listening prayer, and I had been doubting that I really had the ability to hear God during prayer, so with advice from my team I decided to just wing it. I got a lot of images, but I wasn’t sure if it was just me making stuff up or actual visions from God, so I decided to meditate on them later. However, two of the images I had recieved were a bicycle and a jump rope.
So as I was hiking, those two images came to me again, but this time in motion. The bicycle’s pedal’s slowly moving and then as the wheels began turning, they rotated faster and easier. The first swings of the jump rope were unsteady and awkward, but eventually the slaps against the pavement came steadily and rhythmicly. It occurred to me that the same principle applied to climbing this mountain. It was hard to start, but once you did it was easier to keep climbing. And God revealed to me that the Christian life is very much the same.
The first step in our walk with Christ is hard, but once we get going, the steps gradually become easier and easier as God helps us along. We just need to take those first steps, to start, to trust that God would take over once we began talking and journeying with Him.
