We all have obstacles. Every day seems to bring on new ones. Soon, all those obstacles add up, pile up and congeal to make a huge impassable mountain. Our view of possibility becomes obstructed by the size of that mountain and we find ourselves in crises, paralyzed, unable to move forward. How can we? There is a mountain in the way.
Several years ago I went on mission to Greece. Walking through the streets of Athens, I found myself at the foot of a very large hill. Living on the gulf coast, this would constitute a mountain. I only saw one way up, a path laid by others straight up the mountain. Hesitation screamed at me, “Difficult!” With a friend in tow, we headed up a rugged path that was like climbing a wall that had slightly reclined. Although the climb was relatively short, it was a difficult climb, especially since I was in sandals, but we persevered until reaching the top, and this was the view I was able to capture with my camera.
As I stood in awe of all that was surrounding me, the ancient ruins on one side and the city below on the other, I took a moment to contemplate. I recognized that the jagged and sharp edges of the rocks in that mountain were actually marble and granite. Later, I discovered a flight of stairs, which would have made my journey up the mountain much easier, but would have cheated me of overcoming the razor-sharp edges of the beautiful marble that made the climb difficult, but also made the mountain priceless.
When we are in crises or even just faced with a difficult situation, we as humans tend to allow those situations to add up and overwhelm us. This is what forms our mountains. We tend to fight adversity, and it’s that battle that causes our situations to become larger in our minds than what it is in reality. It’s a mind game. Our minds take minor situations and builds a wall around them in an attempt to protect the soul. Our brains register the wall and will assign it the name “obstacle” in order to keep us safe. But many times it is this very thing that makes us immovable and rigid.
What if we took a few moments to really examine what makes up that obstacle and actually tried to make friends with it? What I mean by that, goes back to my mountain in Greece. When I saw that the mountain was actually marble, I enjoyed being at the mountain and enjoyed the experience because I was able to understand its value. It was not just rock and dirt. The mountain itself was the real treasure. Precious stone. As the week went by, I went back to that mountain four times and discovered new easier paths, and realized that the trek upwards was not as exhausting as the first time because my viewpoint had changed, and my endurance increased. I began to see new things around that mountain. Do you see where I’m going with this? When we change our mindset from adversity to opportunity, that mountain is nothing more than a stepping stone to a beautiful view.
If we choose to make friends with our obstacles, they will cease to be a stumbling block and will instead be the elevation needed to see things from a higher perspective.
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