If you’re anything like me, you like mountaintop experiences … but maybe not so much what it takes to get there.

To reach the summit, you work your way up from the valley. And before you even get to the base, you endure months of training to get your body ready for an ascent that’s furthest from easy.

Your alarm goes off early and you want to snooze. A friend reaches out with a more social option than an evening spent with your pack on the gym’s stair stepper. You want to throw in the towel, but you know you won’t reach the top unless you put in the time and effort to train.

Then the time finally comes to climb.

You drive to the base, strap on your pack and start to trek. The higher you get, the thinner the air and heavier the pack on your fatigued legs. It’s only views of the summit that pull you forward when you consider turning back.

Looking up keeps you going. Looking up keeps you going. Looking up keeps you going.

A few hours spent going straight up and you’ve made it. Your eyes fill with wonder at the clouds and peaks that remind you that though you’re small and insignificant, Someone deems you as more valuable than the finest wines and metals and jewels.

He’s even sacrificed His most precious Gift to prove it.

Then you look down. You see the valley and the walking in between from a fresh perspective. Suddenly it hits you … the sights and sounds and smells from the top aren’t what makes the experience, it’s the sweaty, exhausting, heart-pounding journey that brought you there.

It’s hard and beautiful and treacherous and rewarding and unpredictable and consistent and a lot like life.

This. This is what I love about the mountains.

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” –Psalm 121:1-2

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation … For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.” –Psalm 95:1, 3-4