Finding beauty in the Valleys

So was in church a couple weeks back... and Pastor Steve was preaching on seeking out mountain top experiences. He was speaking about faith experiences and connection with God... those incredible moments when you feel so connected, so overpowered with the beauty, the incredible feeling of closeness and exhileration.

The problem is... I've always been a mountaintop kinda girl.
To a fault.
In all areas of my life.

I live for the mountaintop experiences... I live for the thrill...
In faith,
in my home life,
work life,
friendships,
social life...
I've always raced from mountaintop to mountaintop, finding the thrill and excitement from those experiences so incredible that I can never get enough.

Picture yourself having climbed one of the great peaks in the Rocky Mountains... feeling the triumph and exhileration at having reached the top...
looking around you at the incredible view that is more beautiful and breathtaking then anything you can imagine.
That's the feeling I have sought out fervently...
again and again.

So while the point of the message that Sunday morning was to encourage people to seek out those mountaintop experiences with God... the thing that hit home the hardest for me was his statement that you can't live forever on the mountaintop.

While it is beautiful and exhilerating... you can't sustain yourself in such an environment where the very things that you need for existence are not to be found. No food,
no shelter,
no water...
to stay up there indefinitely would mean to starve and thirst with no protection from exposure to the elements.

Those life sustaining things are found in the valley.

His point was that the mountaintop experiences would carry you through the valleys of life. But for me... I've begun to realize that the valley isn't the place to dread... to simply "live through"... but it's the place that sustains me and where the real life is found.

And when I truly open up my eyes to see beyond only the exhilerating wonder of the mountaintop view... I can see the calm serenity, the comfort, the nourishment, the peace, the joy and the breathtaking beauty that is found right here around me in the valleys.

My God who despite my wanderings and struggles keeps me grounded and safe.

My husband, who is my strength, my best friend, my lifeline.

My children who fill me with more joy and love than I feel like I can possibly hold inside me.

My true friends who accept my follies, encourage me in my journey of true self discovery and allow me to be myself.

This is my valley.

And man is it ever beautiful!