A Mountain Walk

This past weekend I had a chance occasion to visit with a young friend of mine whom I've had the  pleasure of watching grow from an intelligent 11-year-old boy into a 20-something-year-old deeply philosophical and debonair young man.  As we visited and we discussed his life's journey over the last 4 years, and mine from over the last almost 40, I was reminded of a favorite analogy from author C.S. Lewis.  I shared it with him hoping that he could see his own life and experiences thus far paralleling Lewis' analogy about life and destinations.

In the book, The Four Loves, Lewis proposes that in this life we are in effect on a mountain walk back to the village which is our home.  He states:

"At mid-day we come to the top of a cliff where we are, in space, very near it because it is just below us.  We could drop a stone into it.  But as we are no cragsmen we can't get down.  We must go a long way around; five miles maybe.  At many points during that detour we shall, statically, be farther from the village than we were when we sat above the cliff.  But only statically. In terms of progress we shall be far "nearer" our baths and teas."

Did you see it in your mind?  Did you picture yourself peering out over that cliff, viewing your charming hamlet below?  If you were an expert rock climber with gear, you could be there in a heartbeat in the town where your hoped for comforts and dreams await you.  But you don't and you are not able to, so you must take the path marked instead and it will take several miles of unknown road for you to travel to get there; 5 miles maybe.  Possibly 50.  Some days it might feel like 500.

Your mountain home awaits you!

Lewis' analogy reminds us that on this particular mountain walk, making our way "home" is rarely achieved, if ever, via a short, direct path or trail.  It's more often winding, unexpectedly hilly, and inherently longer than we'd like.  The walk towards home will often feel like it's taking us further away from what seems like the more logical direction to arrive "home," but the signs and markers along the way say otherwise.  We might even ask like an impatient child, "Are we there yet?"

Though the "detour" seems to take us farther away from our goal, it in fact is taking us exactly where we wanted to be all along.  We are closer to "home" while walking the path than we ever were up on the cliff looking down at the prize below.

I like to think of all of the many applications and lessons from the wisdom of Lewis' life analogy.  It makes me think of things longed for, hopes and dreams wished for, desired life experiences packed up and away high on a shelf to be enjoyed at a later date when the time is right.  A bigger world view might even be that this analogy is our life's journey walking back towards being in full fellowship with our Father in Heaven.

The beauty of the "mountain walk" is that those extra 5 miles often brings us through hidden mountain meadows, along babbling brooks, giving us views of vistas otherwise obscured across craggy mountain ranges that we would have otherwise missed had our path been straighter, shorter, and to our liking.  Think of all that would have been missed on our way "home."  

What hidden mountain meadows will you find on your way home?

Take a moment this week to notice your own mountain walks.  What hidden beauties have you unexpectedly stumbled upon on your way towards wherever you call "home?"  What or whom would you have missed if the longer path had been removed and you could have simply and easily climbed down to your end goal? 

Strive to see the beauty in the "detour" until you can see that you're finally coming home.

Until next time,

Arianna