What A Life

Harriet Golden
December 21, 2007
Rita LaGrange
December 27, 2007
Harriet Golden
December 21, 2007
Rita LaGrange
December 27, 2007

The Bible often talks about preparing the way of the Lord by leveling the mountains and hills and filling valleys. This image comes from the old days when a king would visit part of his kingdom. A “highway crew” would go before the royal trip to fill any large potholes and remove any boulders that might have landed on the roadway.


The spiritual significance of filling the valleys points to the necessity of filling the voids of our lives with the fruit of the Spirit – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23)

Leveling the mountains and hills refer the removal of those obstacles and adversities in life that can cause us to give up or be paralyzed.


We have all heard of I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) tests that measure how smart we are. Have you heard of the A.Q. test, the Adversity Quotient, that measures how well we deal with obstacles and adversities in our lives?


Some people may have a high I.Q. but a low A.Q. When the first big obstacle or adversity that comes along in their life, they give up.

We call them Quitters. Quitters give up on life and usually turn to some addiction as a substitute for a real life. They find excuses not to be involved in life itself.


We all know some Quitters.


Others deal with obstacles for a while. They grow and are even achievers. After a while they give up and decide they have had enough. These become what we call Campers. They move out to the campground of life and try to avoid any challenges. They want to live the good life of comfort that is nothing but an illusion. They are not willing to take up their crosses and follow the Lord.

Some others never give up, no matter what the adversity, no matter what the obstacle. They keep climbing that mountain to conquer it. We call them Climbers. They set goals for themselves and go after them. They say to themselves, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” They are not going to give up until it is done and done right.

Which one are you – a Quitter, a Camper or a Climber?

When Aaron, the brother of Moses, died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days (Num. 20:29). However, after those thirty days, the time of mourning was over, and the Israelites had to move on with life.

There is a great lesson in this: we must push beyond the past to enter the future, a future filled with great things God has planned for us.

The Apostle Paul knew this when he wrote, “This is one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14).

We may have great dreams for our future, but if we fill your future with junk from our past, then we will never fulfill our dreams. Like the Israelites, after a certain time, we must decide to forget what is behind and press on toward the things that are ahead.

We are precious in God’s sight, not because of who we are, but because of whose we are – God’s child!

We prepare the way for Christ’s coming by filling our valleys of despair with hope based on all the blessings we have received. We prepare the way for Christ’s coming by conquering the mountains of obstacles and adversities life puts in our path, by believing that we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us, and by being determined never to give up.