What Are Mountains For?

As a kid, I remember vacationing where the earth looked down on you. You know. Mountains and hills overlooking the flatlands and valleys.

As a kid, I remember longing for places where the earth kissed the sky, far above my head.

As a kid, I remember the excitement of the approach of something so tall that you could only imagine what every nook and cranny hid, and wanted to spend your entire time exploring!

As a kid, I loved traveling to Kentucky to see family because they lived nestled in the “hills”.

There’s something about existing in a place where earth towers so high.

When you live in the flatlands or the armpit of the Gulf of Mexico,
You yearn for something high to look up to, and equally to look down from!

I have special memories of Lookout Mountain and Rock City Gardens around Chattanooga, TN… If you were with us you know what happened to my knee and I carry the event fresh in my mind everytime it locks up. It no longer hurts, I’m sure the nerves are slain, but the potential fall to the ground still keeps me conscious of overdoing it!

At a conference in Hope, British Columbia, sometime back, the hotel was just under several mountains only a few thousand feet high, but they seemed to be straight above us. I could sit on the porch and enjoy that view all day long!

But mountains can be found in different climates, and if you are in Hawaii (like I have been a couple of times), I can tell you I’m not a beach person where Heat, Sand, Grit and Salt dominate. And people, and way too much skin!! Rather, take me up into the mountains overlooking the green and get to where the temps hang out in the 40’s and 50’s… That’s my view of Hawaii heaven!

To learn how the Hawaiian mountains formed and the islands became what they are today, read James Michener’s book, Hawaii, and you can get a glimpse of their volcanic rise.

From our home in Alaska, we looked north to Denali (20,310). The Great One. Over 20,000 feet high and from its shelf of land it highest a higher incline than Mt Everest (29,029)! As the crow flies, Denali was about 150 miles away, but on special days the light refracted and bent and you would totally believe it was just on the other side of the water!

Where I live now, we are surrounded by the Bald Hills, the small foot range tumbling off the Cascade Mountain Range where Mt Rainier (14,411), St Helens (8,366), Hood (11,250), Baker (10,781), and Adams (12,280) reside. Just 35 miles east of our domicile Mt Rainier pokes her nose into the air over the trees and never loses her snow cap. She’s that tall!

Or course, many mountains are indicative of the pressure system beneath our feet. Some day, a mountain over an active system will be primed to explode. Take Mt St Helens as a prime example.

We’ve wandered around Mt St Helens and marvel at the power of a volcano that can obliterate as much as it did on that fateful day in 1980. This was the same year we moved to Alaska and as we drove north on I-5 through the November storms, we bought gallons of windshield washer fluid to keep the gunk off the car as we drove past St Helens on her west flank.

There has always been something about mountains that draw me close.

I never felt like they were there to be conquered, rather something to marvel at as they touched the sky in ways I would never be able to. There’s something about the perspective of a mountain. From below, as well as from above.

One of my best memories of early life in Anchorage was sitting in our apartment on Boniface Drive. The dining table had a clear view of the mountains to the east. This one day, while doing nothing particular at all, I watched clouds form on the Chugach Mountains that nestles the city next to the Cook Inlet. In literal seconds a cloud would form, and then, Poof! Gone. This was 1981. No gadet cameras to capture the moment and I did not have any video camera, but my mind is full of this moment and I relive it whenever I choose!

Just this morning, this thought came to me unbidden. I posted it several ways, but it felt to be included and thought about deeper in the post.

Mountains are for beauty. From them, you gain perspective, see farther away, and deep below.
Mountains are hard to climb and difficult to descend from, and I speak from experience.
Mountains can be vanquished with faith (Matthew 17:20)
Mountains were never meant to be carried.

Too often we think of our personal load as a mountain of weight and size to be carried about. Why? It must be our lot in life to carry the weight instead of banishing it into the sea! Do not let the beauty of a mountain become a millstone around your neck!

But battles and loads are meant to be won and tossed. It depends on you, yes, but it also depends on the one who as the ability to answer your need. Think about what Jesus said, and read between the lines and look how it affects you right now.

“And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  Matthew 17:20(KJV)

And, of course, besides some inspirational thoughts from scripture and experience, I love to hear John Denver sing about living and experiencing the mountains…one of my favorites (Click on the Title to hear the song on YouTube)

Wrangell Mountain Song