Hitting the heights!

Scotland is full of some lovely mountains. Like Ben Lui, which I climbed for the first time the other day.

Described as 'the queen of the Scottish mountains', it's tucked away among the mountains and hills to the south of Tyndrum.

And for long enough I didn't even know that it existed!

See what I've been missing all my life! This mountain is something else: beautiful to look at, exhilerating to climb, and gloriously panoramic in the views that it affords you from its peak. Absolutely stunning. Not the sort of thing you'd want to miss!

And yet, as I say, for long enough I never knew such regal heights as these were there at all!

Which made me think how often and how easily we live our lives like that! Entirely unaware of what we could now be enjoying in the way our lives are lived: settling for a poorish second best, and missing out on all the soaring heights of that adventure which we're called to share with Christ.

But once I got to hear about this peak and heard the sort of comments that the people who had been there all were making, I knew that I'd be restless 'til I'd been there for myself. And so I packed my bag and headed off, intent upon my standing on those rugged, stately heights at last myself.

The story of my life! I do not want to live my life upon the lowlands of experience. I want to climb and reach the heights. I want the very best that's to be had!

You have to know the way, of course. So I did my background reading and I had my OS map and sure enough there was a well-worn track. Which is always re-assuring: it's good to know you're not going off at tangents on a dead-end sort of route!

The sheep have got the right idea, I guess: follow the ancient paths: go where the saints of old have gone before!

The track involves a fair old trek, I have to say! Some four or more long miles on up the glen before you ever reach the actual mountain at its base. Enough to put the person off who likes things always served up on a plate.

And so in life as well. The track to get you even to the starting point for climbing to the heights can often be a pretty long and winding sort of path: and maybe that's the reason why so many simply settle for the second best and end up with a 'lowlands' sort of life. It's too much work, too far to walk and takes just far too long before we're ever in position to begin to get up high.

But once you've reached the river which provides the sort of starting line for all the arduous climbing that's involved, you know that this, indeed, is where you'd always choose to be. The fresh and dancing waters of the mountain's central burn, spilling down with all their sparkling youthfulness to beckon you up high. Who needs a second invitation!

I sometimes think such mountain streams express so very graphically the clear, pure, vibrant, surging life that flows from real relationship with Christ - the rivers of the Spirit of our God, so ceaseless in their trail of potent grace, a ribbon of intoxicating life, the like of which is only found on high.

One taste of that and soon you think the way you've lived before was just so humdrum, mean and meagre that you had no life at all!

But you have to be fit to make it to the top. Ben Lui is big and it also gets steep - and merely good intentions will never be enough!

You need to be resolved, of course: I'm not saying that's not so. You've got to have that absolute commitment to be getting to the top - or else you're never going to make it all the way!

But you need to be fit as well: it's a tough, demanding climb and if you're not in training then, at best, you'll miss the pleasure of the climb - at worst you just won't make it to the top!

'Good things come to those who wait', the advert says. And mountain peaks like this are only reached by those who do the training and are fit.

'Disciplines' are, likewise, so very much bound up with our discipleship of Christ. There are no kind of 'cable cars' that take you, without effort, to the heights of that experience of life which is our heritage in Christ. You have somehow to get yourself in shape. You have to build your muscles and your stamina. You have to do the work.

The mountains peaks of full, abundant life are only reached by those who do the training. I guess we have to work at that some more.

But, no mistake, the effort's always worth it. It's like a different world up there! The colours are so stunning and the air is just so clear.

The deep blue sky; the bright, warm sun; the banks of sparkling snow which formed a sort of patchwork quilt of winter round this soaring burst of spring! Quite simply beautiful!

It made me proud, all over again, to be a Scot! To know this is my land: these lochs, these hills, these mountain peaks, this captivating view which, every way I looked, for miles and miles on end was all that I could see - this is my home, this land so full of blue and brittle beauty: this is where I belong: this is my land. It stirred my heart, I have to say!

And all around the history as well! Each glen with its own heritage of song, long centuries of fluctuating fortunes whose stories have been told, who knows, a thousand times and more.

I looked around for long enough (not just to catch my breath!) and wondered once again at just how rich is that inheritance I have. I looked around and thought - I wouldn't swap this grandeur for a single other place on planet earth!

And remember, for long enough I didn't even know that this was here! A frightening thought!

Just how much more of all the many riches God has given us in Christ am I still largely ignorant about?

Just how much more remains still mainly hidden from my soul?