Give me this mountain

The other day, our neighbors took us mountain climbing for Family Home Evening. They don't climb mountains with their feet, the way you and I do, they choose mountains that are straight up and down, and climb them with their hands, ropes and toes. It was fun to watch, and a bit scarey, too. When we arrived at the destination, every boy of mine said they didn't want to climb,but since the family we came with had girls the same age as my boys, climb they did. Jens went first.



Then Jan and Dane took a turn





Then up went Leah, Dad and yes, even mom








And as challenging as it was going up, it was even harder going down, where you had to lean away from the mountain, and trust the rope and the person holding it at the bottom to keep you from falling.



Jordan wasn't impressed


He tried to keep a low profile, hoping he wouldn't have to climb. I figured that it wouldn't hurt if he didn't give it a go, because frankly, it scared me to death going up and down myself.

But Joe really wanted Jordie to have this experience, so he kept working with him.

Right before it got dark, with his dad's encouragement, Jord took on the mountain, and his fears.


Watching Jordie climb that mountain has been on my mind a lot lately. This summer I have seen people I love stuggle with mountains. From untimely death, to chronic illness, to financial challenges, trying to figure out how to get over these mountains has almost broken them. The scripture records that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. I have seen a mustard seed, it's not too big. So what if you have that much faith, and you ask the mountain to move, and it doesn't. How much faith does it take to climb that mountain, to dig thru it, or just live dwarfed in it's shadow for a while? The holy writ is silent on this subject. But if I was a bettin' man (and I'm not) I'd wager, you'd need more than a mustard seed portion of faith to get you over that mountain and on the other side. Just ask the Mormon pioneers, spiritual and literal mountains stood in their path, I bet they could tell us something about the amount of faith required to keep going when trials and mountains are immovable.

I remember a story from he Old Testament about a mountain and a man named Caleb. He was part of the Israelites who were led out of Egypt by Moses. Caleb, and Joshua and some other men were sent as spies to the promised land to find out how hard it would be for the armies of Israel to overpower the inhabitants and claim the land for their own. They brought back huge grapes and produce to prove to the 12 tribes how fruitful the land was. But when the other men began telling about how fierce and strong the inhabitants looked, the Israelites cried and begged for Moses to take them back to Egypt because they would rather be slaves than have to take on the Canaanites. (Numbers 13 and 14). That was their response after this people had seen the miracle of the plagues, the parting of the red sea, manna,water in the desert coming forth from a rock, the pillar of fire by night and the shadow by day. How much faith had these miracles produced? Probably just a little less than the size of a mustard seed. Joshua and Caleb tried to convince the Israelites that with the Lord's help they could be victorious in all things. But to no avail. It was like they were saying, "Making us fight for our own freedom is a dealbreaker. Just put us back into bondage, if you don't mind." The Lord told Moses that the Israelites had to wander in the wilderness until all of the older generation died, and then and only then would He lead the the 12 tribes to the promised land. That took 40 years to come to pass, and then Moses was taken from them. Only two people from that older group remained. Joshua, who became the prophet and Caleb, who for his faith in the Lord was promised a mountain called Hebron for his inheritance. There was only a few problems with the mountain, it was inhabited by fierce warriors, and they had a big fence around their city. Oh yeah, and they were giants. When Caleb was apprised of the situation, this was his response: "Never mind, I never liked that mountain anyway." Just joking, THIS was his response: "Now therefore give me this mountain....if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out,as the Lord said." (Joshua 14:12) Oh, by the way, Caleb was 85 years old at the time. So how much faith does THAT take?

I love that "Give me this mountain" attitude. The Lord could've fixed it for Caleb. He could've just had his inheritance without having to fight. He could've, I know He could. I think the the easy answer is for the Lord to remove the mountains in our way, after all, it only requires faith the size of a mustard seed...and thankfully, sometimes the mountains do move. However, we are here on earth to learn to be like our Savior, and when he asked the Father to remove the cup of the atonement from him, it wasn't.(Mark 14:36) He drank the cup, he climbed that mountain for us, and thru some of it, he climbed and suffered alone. He had greater faith than a mustard seed, and so must we. Some mountains don't move, and when they don't, I think I can see a loving Heavenly Father(a little bit like Joe and Jordie) at the bottom of a steep mountain encouraging his child to climb. "Climb, and see life from a new perspective. Climb and replace your great fear with great faith. Climb this mountain and come to me"

P.S.
Jordie turned 11 the other day. I asked him what was the neatest thing he did while he was 10, after thinking for a while he said, "The neatest thing I did was climb that mountain."