I actually live in a valley, Shenandoah
Valley. However, I can see Virginia's mountains in the distance. Valley
dwellers even call some of their businesses “Mountain View” as
does my ENT doctor.
I subtitled the third of my faith autobio
Trilogy of books Flourishing on my Summit and the final two
chapters of my autobiography Czeching My Roots: View from
My Summit and Living on My Summit. The reason? I've been
writing them from the vantage point of my calendar-challenged but
blessed vintage season, my Summit.
What's to enjoy on life's summit when
you are thought to be “over the hill”? The final years of life
are more often considered depressing valleys because our best days
are behind us. We do have a choice. We can wallow in the loss of our
yesterdays, bemoan our limitations of the present, fearful of our
lack of a future.
Or we can take in the fabulous vista of God's
faithfulness and savor the fruit of our life from its orchard. We can choose to
“smile at the future” as the worthy woman of Proverbs 31 did.
“Give her the fruit of her hands,” the last verse declares. God
wants us to enjoy our harvest, to munch on a crunchy Virginia Granny Smith apple--although it was not from an orchard that I cultivated.
Age provides a better perspective
although we may physically be viewing our summit through diminished physical
eyesight, bifocals or through inter-ocular lenses from cataract
surgery. Even if we are visually challenged, we can use the eyes of
our heart, the “enlightened eyes of understanding” which
Ephesians says we possess as God's children. We can even ask God to
give us another mountain as 85 year old Caleb asked Joshua on the
verge of their entrance into The Promised Land. Why not?
Each new season not only has its
challenges and demands, but its own beauties, opportunities and
fulfillments to relish. If God gave us this summit time, it is His
generous, loving gift. Robert Browning got it right: “Grow old
along with me; the best is yet to be, the
last for which the first was made.”
Think of many loved ones who were not blessed with longevity and with whom we were not able to grow old. If we're still here, we
still have time, even if only one day, to appreciate our remaining
relationships. Each new dawn provides us with another fresh slice of
life to rejoice in and live for the Lord. Another chance to make the
present day, the present moment, the most meaningful yet.
Let's focus our priorities as though
our days were soon coming to a close. They are indeed—whether
in a few years, one year, a month or a day. As summit Christians,
let's guard our precious calendar commitments as seriously as we
would against an approaching hoard of locusts who would eat up all
our time. Yes, there is a proliferation of doctor appointments and
the growing burden of just getting through the mundane routines of
life which are consuming greater and greater amounts of our shorter
days. Let's invest whatever discretionary time we have left to
cultivate a deeper and closer relationship with Jesus Christ, the
Lord of our lives—both temporal and everlasting—a glorious,
forever and ever summit relationship.
“So teach us to number our days that
we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
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