A Mountaintop Perspective

"Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." - James 1:2-4

I love being high up in the mountains. Standing at the summit of a tall peak has a way of helping me put things into perspective. It's there I’m often reminded how small I really am and how unnecessarily busy and stressful my life tends to be in the grand scheme of things. However, when we look at the tops of mountains, we see that they are not a place of great growth. Very few plants grow there and the ones that do are typically small and brittle. It’s important to remember that the valleys of life are our greatest places of growth. We can use the perspective gained while on the mountaintop to help us through the trials of the valley but the mountaintop is not where we live. Enjoy the mountaintop! Learn from it and appreciate the perspective it gives you, but remember it’s in the valley that we live and grow.