I have seen the beauty - the unsurpassable beauty. It cannot
be captured or bottled.

 

God whispers to me. I used to hope that it would be at
church retreats or at these places of physical beauty that God would provide me
with a powerful encounter with Him. But they never have been and may never.

The divine encounters I have been blessed with occur at
times when I least expect. It is when I am completely humbled and remember that
I am from dust and to dust I shall return. It is at these moments I am at the
mountaintop. At these moments, I truly understand the majesty of our Father. I
am brought to the point of weakness and have no other choice than to stand in
awe.

The first time I prayed over a complete stranger is one
mountaintop that always sticks out to me. I had no clue what I was doing. I
clumsily and tiredly asked her if I could pray over her, and we bowed our heads
together. At the end of the prayer, I walked away feeling spent with tears streaming
down my face as the Lord whispered to me that is what I am made for. I am made
to pour out His love as I am brought to points of weakness. I am not made for
the mountaintops. Rather, I am made for the valleys.

In these valleys is where I am called to do His will. As I
walk through the valleys, this is where the Lord "makes my feet like the
deer's; he makes me tread on high places" (Habakkuk 3:19). 

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down
again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is
below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One
descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting
oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one
can no longer see, one can at least still know. - Rene Daumal