Month: October 2023

In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, from Napal, stood on top of the world.  After several failed attempts, they reached the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet (2900+ feet).  It took their breath away (in more than one way).  But after a few moments to savor their victory, they quickly headed back down the mountain.  The mountain top moment soon became a well-documented but distant memory. 

Before the age of airplanes, climbing to the top of a mountain was the only way to see the broader picture of our surroundings and typography.  Fortunately, we do not have to climb Mt. Everest to experience a spiritual mountain top moment with God.  Those moments provide an opportunity to discover more about God, experience him differently, and see life from a higher vantage point.  These spiritual mountain top experiences often change the trajectory of our lives by expanding our horizons, clarifying our vision, and changing our perspectives.

Our spiritual mountain top moments (MTMs for short) don’t have to occur on a physical mountain; however, there are many scriptural examples where they do.  Consider the following significant God encounters on mountains:    

• Noah landed his boat on Mt. Ararat
• Abraham offered Isaac on Mt. Moriah
• Moses meets God in the burning bush on Mt. Horeb
• The Ten Commandments are given to Moses on Mt. Sinai
• Jesus was transfigured before the disciples on Mt. Taber
• Disciples were given the Great Commission on a mountain.

You can probably think of others.

I suggest we have three different responses (or combinations) on our MTMs.  I call them:

• The “Wow!” moment
• The “Whew!” moment
• The “Aha!” moment

The Wow moment.

On this MTM, we are confronted with the incredible wonder of our transcendent God.  It is when we see the Lord “sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted.”  We sense his creative power and sovereign reign.  He is the Lord of lords and King of kings.  It is a moment when we know deep within us that He is God and we are not.  And for a moment at least, we feel that’s how it should be.

The Wow moment not only elevates God to his rightful preeminence, but we sense our smallness in comparison.  As a long-time resident of the prairie states, I feel small whenever I travel in the Rocky Mountains.  Others may feel it when watching the ocean’s rolling waves, viewing the universe through a telescope, or seeing microscopic life through a microscope.

Our response in the Wow moment is to worship by personally humbling ourselves and elevating God.  In the Wow moment, our perspective changes from God is the Creator to God is my creator; God is sovereign to God is sovereign over me!  This MTM naturally elicits praise, gratitude, and thanksgiving.

I think this is the kind of moment the disciples had when they witnessed Christ’s transfiguration.  It was so incredible they wanted to set up camp and stay there forever.  It was the feeling that everything had come together and that “It can’t get any better than this.”

The Whew moment

Where the Wow moment takes our breath away, the Whew moment gives it back.  The Wow moment faces us with the transcendence of God, but the Whew moment exposes us to his immanence.  On this mountain top moment, we sing Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd….and that’s all I need.”  We can relax because we know God is with us.  Life may still have unresolved issues, but they are not important since we are secure in the presence of the Good Shepherd.

In this MTM, there is a sense of relief and peace:  Shalom.  God is not only sovereignly reigning over the world and everything in it, but he is also intimately walking beside me.  Down through history, the church has had a difficult time balancing the transcendence and immanence of God.  Medieval European gothic cathedrals emphasized God’s transcendence with spires and intricately decorated high ceilings.  The cathedral was designed to lift your eyes up to behold the holy, transcendent God.   Unfortunately, the imminence of God leading to a personal relationship with him was often thought impossible as (in their minds) he was too transcendent to care about the individual (immanence). 

However, in the Whew moment, God’s immanence overrides his transcendence as he invades our personal space.  In the Whew moment, God is not only the God who loves the world but the God who loves me.

Elijah experienced a Whew moment during a famine in Israel when a vengeful King Ahab pursued him.  Surprisingly, God takes him to an unlikely place for safety and provision:  the “mountain top” home of a poor Shunamite woman.  Her home was a shelter in the storm, where he could escape the threats and find shalom. 

The Aha moment

We gain clarity when we experience the Aha moment on the mountain top.   Above the clouds, we can see further than we can in the valley.  We are still limited by the horizon and our human line of sight, but from a higher vantage point we can see farther and gain new perspectives.   

The Aha comes as God’s Spirit uses the Word to open our eyes and hearts in a moment of revelation – even inspiration – to what has been a mystery, making it more understandable.  Our faith grows as we see what is true, even though it is invisible.  We may also gain hope as we claim promises not yet fulfilled.  Paul refers to his dramatic Aha Mountain Top Moment in 2 Corinthians 12.  “I know a man in Christ…(who) was caught up into the third heaven…into Paradise and heard inexpressible words…”

Mountain top moments, like the mountain meadow, don’t last long.  We must stop, look around, and savor the moment when they happen.  Years ago, when I directed collegiate ministries, we would take students on ski conferences during winter breaks, spending a few days in Bible study and then a few days on the ski slopes. 

After several of these trips, I began to gain enough confidence to move from the “bunny” slope to a green one, trying out my skill at “parallel” skiing.  After spending the afternoon trying not to cause a pile-up when I exited the ski lift and not hitting someone on the ski slope, I finally gained the confidence to quit looking at my skis and look up.  It was an amazing view, and I almost missed it.  I had spent the day looking at my ski boots when this breathtaking view from the mountain top was all around me.  I had focused on getting down the slope without falling when I could have focused on the grandeur of the mountain view.   

Sometimes we are so focused on living the Christian life without falling that we miss the view from the mountains.  Whether it is a Wow, a Whew, or an Aha moment, the mountain top landscape is a gift not to miss, maybe even create a memorial to remember them. 

For Reflection

1. Reflect on one of your Mountain Top Moments.  How did you feel?  How did God show up?
2. Reflect on one of the biblical mountain top events and note how God showed up.

The detours we experience are sudden changes in direction, route, or plans that are outside our control.  A detour is a deviation from our original plan, and it is inconvenient because, contrary to our plans for the shortest, fastest route possible, detours create delays. 

The dictionary defines a detour this way: to turn aside; a roundabout way, a deviation from a direct way; a route used when the direct or regular route is closed; a circuitous way.

Anxiety, impatience, frustration, disappointment, and even confusion emerge when confronted with a detour in life.  Unable to progress toward our goals, we may feel that we are wasting time, no longer in control, and unsure of the future.

To gain a positive perspective on detours, we need to look back through the lens of faith.  Hindsight often gives us a better understanding of how God was present all along. 

The following are six possible reasons why God orchestrates detours in our lives.   

  1.  The bridge or road we are about to cross is unsafe.  God reroutes us to protect us when the road ahead is unsafe and too dangerous to proceed. 

On August 1, 2007, the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge was an eight-lane, steel truss arched bridge carrying Interstate 35W traffic across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It collapsed during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.  Many families would have welcomed a sign: “Detour—Bridge unsafe.”

Our God does not always tell us that the road ahead is unsafe.  Instead, he graciously puts up the roadblock (detour) and asks us to trust him without explanation.  I am convinced that many of the detours we experience will one day make perfect sense and produce a humble response of gratitude.  (Isaiah 55:8-9)

2.  God wants us to see and experience a life scenic view we would not have seen or chosen by our initiative.  When living life on a 70-mph freeway, we barely have time to turn our heads and look at the countryside.  Our focus is on just getting there—wherever that is.  And once we get there, we get on the next interstate and do it all over again.  We observe little and learn even less. 

Jesus took his disciples on a detour in John 4 when traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee.  The cultural freeway was via the Jordan River Interstate.  The Samaria route was slow, dangerous, and politically incorrect.  But John said that “Jesus had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4).  After reading the rest of the story, we know he took this off-road route to encounter an outcast lady in an out-of-the-way city, giving his disciples (then and now) a countercultural view of a woman, a town, and a harvest away from the freeway.

Detours cause us to slow down and look around.  When we overcome our impatience, detours can open vistas we would have never seen from the freeway.  We may meet people who are lost, in pain, and lonely, or we may discover the hand of God in the beauty of nature’s simplicity, or perhaps we experience the kindness of a friend who showed up unexpectedly and unannounced (John 4:39-42).

3.  We are headed in the right direction but are not yet ready to reach our destination.  We need more time to mature to handle and appreciate what lies ahead.    Or perhaps the detour is for the sake of others as they are not yet ready for our presence or contribution.

Moses experienced a 40-year detour in the desert after killing the Egyptian.  It took those 40 years for the people of Israel to learn to cry out for God’s help and meanwhile, Moses was learning how to live in the desert and listen to God.

Paul was another leader who experienced detours.  After his conversion, he immediately began to proclaim the gospel of Jesus in Damascus.  His preaching resulted in a death threat that prompted the believers to sneak Paul out of town.  The details are sketchy, but Paul spent the following three years in the desert of Arabia.  He then went to Jerusalem, where he was cautiously introduced to the other apostles.  Once again, his boldness in proclaiming the Gospel got him into physical danger.  This time, however, the disciples sent him off to Tarsus (his hometown), where he stayed for another 14 years in obscurity.  Eventually, Barnabas gets Paul from Tarsus and brings him to Antioch, where there is a great moving of the Spirit of God.  Hardly the straight-line road Paul had envisioned in those early days in Damascus.

There are several other possible reasons why Paul had a 14-year detour from sharing Christ with the world.  It could have been for his development and maturity.  It could have also been for the development of the church under Peter’s influence in Acts 10-11.  What is clear is that Paul was eager to engage in his calling, but God put him on a circuitous path for several years. 

Detours can cause us to slow down and wait for God’s timing.  God’s clock doesn’t seem to run as fast as ours.  I think that is why one of the most repeated phrases in the Psalms is “wait on the Lord.” In Isaiah 40:28-31, the prophet emphasized the benefits of doing so!

4.  We are not headed in the right direction.  Sometimes God allows us to move in the wrong direction before redirecting us.  Remember, it is easier to direct a moving car than a stalled one.  In like manner, rather than becoming paralyzed with over-analysis and fear of making mistakes, we need to start moving.  However, we also want to avoid a stubborn, focused attitude that keeps us from accepting God’s course correction. 

An example is in Acts when Paul sought direction on his second missionary journey.  Luke tells us that Paul tried to enter western Asia, but “the Lord prevented him” (Acts 16:6).  Having hit the detour, Paul waited and adjusted as the Holy Spirit opened new doors into Greece.  Paul was a man in motion but allowed God to open and close doors.

5.  God wants to develop our trust and faith in his goodness.  He knows that there will be times when it will be crucial for us to respond and obey quickly to his leadership.  Detours are part of that development process.   Much of my early military training taught me to follow commands quickly and completely.  Military leaders know that in combat, that ability will save lives.  Faith in Christ puts us under new leadership…his.  He is now the authority we need to obey quickly. 

God used a cloud to lead Israel in their initial journey in the desert.  When it moved, they moved.  When it stopped, they stopped.  They stayed put if the cloud rested for a day, a week, or even a month.  There is no hint in Scripture that God gave them an explanation of why it stopped or started.  Following the cloud was training for trusting God in the future.

Under the new covenant, we are given the Holy Spirit as our “cloud.” Paul says in Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Learning to recognize and respond to the voice of God is part of our spiritual development.  Detours are one of the ways God teaches us to follow (John 14:26).

6.  Our sin has altered our path.  Sin always has consequences, even after forgiveness.  These consequences appear as roadblocks, altering our course and creating a detour.  Sin may even eliminate the original destination, so it is no longer an option.                  

For example, when the children of Israel had the opportunity to enter the Promised Land, they refused, even though the spies reported the inhabitants were afraid of the Israelites.  Because of their disobedience, God put the Israelites on a 40-year detour and only the next generation was permitted to enter the Promised Land.        

Through divinely appointed detours, we discover God is our faithful Guide.  We also can learn to:

• Persevere, keep going, not quit or retreat.
• Wait on the Lord, not doubting his promises but following the direction clearly given by God, even when the path looks dark and forbidding. 
• Enjoy the new scenery, trusting that God has a purpose for the detour, even if we don’t understand it.   

Remember God’s promise to the Hebrews in the Old Testament when considering the detours in your spiritual journey.  Their sin resulted in captivity, but even then, God’s gracious promise was to give them a future and hope (Jeremiah 29:11).

For Reflection:

1.  Can you recall a detour in your life that changed your plans?  How did you respond?  Looking back, how did God show up?
2.  Can you think of other reasons God might create detours in your path?
3. What are other biblical examples of detours?  How did God show up?