Random Thoughts

(December 31, 2013)
This is the year! This is the year that I finally embrace the mountaintop! This is the year that I stop peering over the ledge of the mountain trying to see what’s going on down in the valley. This is the year that I stop looking back, like Lot’s wife, frozen into a useless pillar of salt, and head in the direction that God directs me to go. This is the year that I become more like Mary than Martha.

For some reason, we tend to think of mountaintop experiences as triumphant and celebratory when often they can seem lonely. After all, the mountaintop experience is a “calling apart,” a separation from the masses, a temporary deliverance from the valley. “Life” (the daily running to and fro, the “doing, getting and fretting”) happens in the valley, but TRANSFORMATION happens on the MOUNTAINTOP! So, the mountaintop is lonely only to the extent that I continue to peer over the ledge and focus on the valley. On the other side of that coin is intimacy with my Creator, the One who knows me because He created me in my inmost being before even a day of my life came to be, the One who has numbered the hairs on my head, the One who never stops thinking of me, the One who plans to prosper me and not to harm me, the One who loves me like no other!

So, this year, I surrender to the calling apart, to hearing what God wants to tell me, seeing what He wants to show me, and going where He wants to lead me.

It is said that every mountaintop experience is a preparation for the valley. If that is the reason I have been placed here on this mountaintop, then it is high time that I embrace the experience, that I stop, look, listen, and wait on Him, let Him overwhelm me with His presence, so that I am not later overwhelmed by the valley.

When God placed Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezek 37:1-14), He asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones become living people again?” As Ezekiel spoke what God commanded him to speak, God began (re)making living people out of those dry bones that “covered the valley floor…were scattered across the ground, and were completely dried out.” Then He breathed life into them, and according to the Word, they were revived and became a great army.

I believe this is what the Lord has for me! I believe He is reviving my dry bones. He wants to breathe new life into me, and not just me, but those around me…that in time, there will be “a rattling noise” all across my valley. That is why He has called me apart for a time. That is why I cannot afford to linger any longer on the ledge!

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Ezekiel 37:1-14: “The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”