Up!

As an avid hiker, several years ago, I decided to hike a specific mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  The mountain was Mt. Flume.  It stands out from all the other mountains around it because its face is an enormous, nearly vertical slab of granite.  Standing at the base of the mountain, its face is somewhat ominous to a person who has a respect, or rather a fear, of heights.

The beginning trail was quite typical and soon I saw the sign for the trail I was going to follow:  To Flume Slide Trail.  That was an interesting name, Flume Slide.  I walked the connecting trail to the base of the Flume Slide.  A slide is the name given to an area of a mountain where the topsoil has slid off and exposed the ledge below.  Part of a slide is the rubble of stones at the base of ledge.  I stared up at the trail and started my ascent.  Scrambling over the stones was a challenge, but certainly manageable.  Once I cleared the stones I saw the wall of granite that I was going to “hike.”  I say “hike” because in a normal hike you primarily use your feet, but this trail required you to use hands and feet.  The steepness is such that, I felt if I was to stand up too quickly I could lose my balance, topple down the trail, and land in heap at the bottom. 

Trying to manage my fear of heights, at one point I stopped to look at the view.  The view was spectacular, but seeing the trail fall away at my feet was alarming.  I quickly turned back around to face the wall of granite.  Occasionally, there was water seeping from between the rocks, which was usually accompanied by moss.  This made these areas quite slippery and they needed to be avoided if at all possible.  The total trail length is 3.3 miles with an elevation gain of about 2500 feet.  The average grade is about 20%, with the steepest sections approaching 50%.

The hike was difficult and grueling.   When I finally reached the top of the trail it leveled off considerably.  A short distance away was an outcropping of ledge where one could sit, rest and take in the panorama of the adjacent ranges.  There I met a couple with their two dogs.  The husband saw me and asked, “Did you come up the Flume Slide trail?”

“Yup,” I responded.

“What did you think of that?”

“There was a whole lot of ‘up’ in that trail!” I exclaimed.

We had brief conversation after that, and parted ways to find our way back down to the base via any other route. 

There is a lot of “up” in life.  Some people say that we have our ups and downs, but I tend to think that we are always climbing hurdles.  Each day there are new challenges that we have to face.  For some, simply getting out of bed is a challenge, whether it is due to physical impairments or emotional manacles.  For some, it is recognizing that they don’t have socks to match their outfit.

Overcoming each obstacle brings us through another day and helps us reach a new step on the ladder of life.  We can fail to face the challenge, but that doesn’t bring us down to the bottom of the ladder; we don’t revert to being an infant, we continue to get up each day and grow another day older.

When we reach plateaus in life, we have become, complacent, stagnant, acceptant, or bitter.  It is important to continually push ourselves out of our comfort zones.  Going through the paces of everyday life, simply provides us with existence. 

The Apostle Paul tells us that he was content in all things, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t rise to meet challenges.  He was stoned, (people threw rocks at him), he was shipwrecked, he was bitten by a viper, he was thrown into Roman prisons, etc.  In all of these situations, he found contentment because he understood what the end of the race looked like.  He was assured that he would be in the presence of the Holy God in Heaven.