Mountaintop Experiences

Mountaintop experiences are incredible. They are important parts of shaping who we are. They remind us of the best times of our lives. They remind us of the greatest and most wonderful memories we have. But they are not where we live, day to day. None of us actually live within a mountaintop experience. We visit the summit. We look around. We savour the moment. But then, we return to the world from whence we came.
Those insane folks who climb up Mt. Everest learn something all of us should learn too: that you can't actually live - day to day - up there on the top of Everest. For one thing, there's no air up there to breath. For another, there's no food. No running water. It's too cold, and there's no way to sustain yourself. Quite literally, it's a nice place to visit, but you really can't live there.
Metaphorically, that's the way of all mountaintop experiences: they are nice places to visit, but you really can't live there. Because life is always an experience of moving forward, one moment to the next, one experience to the next. No one single experience ever persists forever, no matter how much we might want to cling to it...
Having any mountaintop experience of God is a true gift. But what God tells us about them is this: "Keep these experiences. Ponder them. Give thanks that they happened. But then remember that, in the spiritual life, things are always changing.
Abundant life still awaits you, down in the valley."

© Eric Folkerth 2002