TOP OF THE WORLD

There is the story of a youth pastor in California by the name of R. Kent Hughes who went on a hiking trip with some of the High School students. They hiked to the top of Mt. Whitney in California, the highest spot in the continental United States at 14,495 feet above sea level. They exulted over the wonderful panorama of the Sierra Nevada and the Mojave Desert. What a spot, with its rare field, crystal-clear air, its indigo and turquoise lakes-vista giving way to vista as far as one could see. As they gazed together from what seemed to be the top of the world, one of their party pointed out that only eighty miles southeast was Death Valley, the lowest spot in the United States at 280 feet below sea level and the hottest place in the country with a record 134 degrees in the shade!
What a contrast! One place is the top of the world, the other the bottom. One place is perpetually cool and the other relentlessly hot. From Mt. Whitney you look down on all of life. From Death Valley you can only look up to the rest of the world.

Sometimes it seems as though we are on the top of the world looking down, and sometimes it seems that we are in the valley looking up. When I was in high school we lived in the San Luis Valley in Colorado, my brother and I went to the top of Mt. Baldy, a big mountain on the west side of the valley. We drove as far as we could, stopping to move fallen trees, driving around some and finally we had to get out of the truck and walk the rest of the way to the top. What a view from the top, we could see for miles, looking down to the valley floor we couldn’t see anybody, but we knew they were there. As great as it was to be on top, we had to come back down, you see, we didn’t live on topof the moutain. We seem to think that we should always be on top of the mountain and never in the valley, but the valley isn’t such a bad place to be. It’s in the valley that we listen to God as never before, in the valley we can get still, quite and really listen to God. When we are on that mountain top we are too busy looking around, going from this side to that, thinking about what we are going to tell others. Mountain tops are great, but valleys are great also, get quite this week and really listen to God. As the song says, If the blessings are in the valley, then in the river I will wait.