False summits

     When do you feel the most effective? Is it when you are happy? Or maybe when you get 15 hours of sleep (my favorite)? Or maybe when you are in the spotlight? Our effectiveness is a question that undergirds everything in our lives. Think about your workplace, but also think about your home. Don’t you want to have a safe home, or be a good parent, or live comfortably?

     When I think about this question I think about false summits. You can see the top of the mountain! You look ahead and you think “1 more mile to the top”, “500’ to the top…”, “200 more steps to the top” only to be surprised with another summit even higher up that you couldn’t see before once you arrived.  Even if you do know it is a false summit you still are left with the mystery of how much further it is to the actual summit.

     Our effectiveness is tied to discerning which summits are real in our lives and which ones are false. If we wish to be effective, to be successful, we have to know when we are just climbing a false summit and when we are climbing that final hill. False summits aren’t bad, because after all, you are making progress, but they can’t be allowed to blind us to our eventual goal! The beautiful part about being a Christ follower is that there is not only a path for us to follow, but we already know what the final summit is for us. It isn’t happiness, though we will certainly find some along the way. It isn’t surviving hardship, though we will definitely have some of that too as we climb. It isn’t riches or fame. No, the true summit that we will reach with God’s help is to be like God (godliness). You can be assured that there is no one more effective than God and those who are like him.

-Devin & Sarah Q.