Article November 24, 1997 Issue

Lessons from a mountain climb

Michael B. Thorneloe

When I was a teenager, I used to love "walking holidays." On one occasion a friend of mine and I went on a hiking tour of Wales, a beautiful part of the British Isles. It was the first time we had been allowed away from our parents for a vacation. We hiked across Wales in what is known as Snowdonia. It gets its name from Mount Snowdon, a high mountain in the area. We found there were two ways to go to the top of the mountain—one by the old-fashioned funicular railway, which chugged up the steep mountainside (the railway is still there), the other way by walking up. We decided to walk.

It was a beautiful day as we set off. The walk was easy to start with. And the higher we climbed, the wider the view. The climb became more difficult, but the view got more expansive and beautiful. Eventually, we got to the top. We could see for many miles. It was magnificent.

It struck me then how like our whole human experience mountain climbing is. The higher we climb spiritually, the more we see. There are examples of this in the Bible, where we can find many mountaintop experiences. In the Old Testament we have the record of Moses, for example. He climbed Mount Sinai, and his growing vision resulted in the Ten Commandments (see Ex. 20: 1-17). His followers did not accept his deep, broad vision to start with, and the Commandments were broken. He had to go up the mountain again so that they could be carved in stone a second time.

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