Climbing Mountains

If you have ever sat by the side of a running river, you have probably seen something moving in the water and wondered if it was just debris or if it was a living being. Most of the time I have concluded that it was just a stick, or a log.


There have been a few times that I don’t know if it was some form of life or not, the object just floated by and I never got a good enough look at it to tell.

But then there are those times that you know beyond a doubt.

When I see a log moving against the current I know it’s an alligator. When a stick begins to go back and forth across the current, it’s probably a water moccasin.

No matter how much a log looks like an alligator in the river, I am never one hundred percent sure unless I see it swimming upstream. Moving with the current is what logs do. Making your own current is a sign of life.

How do you want to live?

You can follow the current and live a dull, predetermined course. You can seek financial, political and social stability. You can spend pointless endless hours on Netflix, social media, gaming, and small talk. You can be that object, floating downstream, unaware of where it is headed but thinking it is comfortable going wherever the current drags it. But if you choose that path, no one will recognize the life within you.

Have you ever met someone who seemed alive? I mean we are all biologically living beings, but there are people out there who are alive in a different way. Sometimes you meet someone who just seems more alive, like they have found out the secret of life. There is passion and fire within them. They own adventure and strike you as an example of living.


I want to be like that. I want people to see me and recognize life. I want to be alive and to live every day from every deep passion and desire of my heart.

There is safety and comfort in floating with the current. Misguided passion tells us sometimes not just to float, but to swim with the current.

But life is not about being safe or being comfortable. Life is about risk and moving away from comfort. God created gravity, knowing what that meant if man fell. And yet He still made that mountain for us to climb. He knew it wasn’t going to be safe, but maybe we are supposed to climb it anyway.

Today there is a mountain for you to climb. I don’t know what it is for you, but I know this; it isn’t a mountain if there isn’t the risk of falling.