What if everything were flat?

My last post reminded me of a conversation that I had with the kids the other day: 'What if God hadn't made hills and everything was flat?'

It was actually a pretty interesting conversation. We began by listing all the things that wouldn't be so hard if everything was flat. But then I started listing off all the things that they WOULDN'T have or be able to do if there were no hills: no skiing, snowboarding or tobogganing, no mountains to look up at or down from, maybe even no lakes!

We all agreed that life would be pretty boring if everything was flat. It's easy to say that about the external; however, what about us personally?

Unlike rollercoasters, life moves (usually) at a much slower pace. So why do we so often live it like it IS a rollercoaster- always looking for what the next turn will bring instead of enjoying the view from where we are?

Sometimes the valleys feel like deep dark pits and we wonder if life will ever get better. It reminds me of a friend who was struggling with some post-partum issues- so a group of us went over to pray with her. The analogy that came to mind was that of dessert flowers. That might seem like an oxymoron since the dessert is such a dry and desolate place- but there are some very beautiful flowers that only grow in those kinds of conditions. And so that is what I prayed for this friend- that each day God would help her "see and pick" a bouquet of dessert flowers as long as she was walking that road.

That isn't to say that there isn't a whole lot of yucky stuff that goes with that, but we're commanded to 'consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds'. This isn't a deluded 'paste a smile on your face even though life seems to suck/pie in the sky ideology'. It's a 'I know that God is bigger than this and has promised to walk me through so, even though I may never understand WHY!??- I know that God is God and is in control and will make SOMETHING good come out of it, just because He promised He would. Lot easier said than done, though.

But you know, the mountain tops- where everybody says things are going absolutely amazing, also has it's own challenges. Mountain tops are actually very harsh, inhospitable environments. Yeah the view is great (especially from inside a building or gondola), but outside can be nasty.

I guess the difference is in the perspective. When you're at the bottom looking up- you realize how small you really are and how feeble you are to deal with things on your own. It would almost seem like these should be the awesome times because that's when we realize/see the power of God to make up our shortfall.

Maybe the mountain top is really a double edged sword. On the one hand, our earthly problems/situations/etc. look mighty small when your 20,000+ ft up! But on the other, it could be very easy to sit back and marvel over yourself for making it up there- thus possibly diminishing the power/role of God in your life. Which is probably why we usually quickly find ourselves back down in the valley!

There are ups and downs (literally- sorry, just had to put that in there, lol) to the landscapes of our lives. And, as much as it would be nice to not have one or the other at times- we need both.

God made hills, and it was very good.