Things Above

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” —Colossians 3:1

Our valley can be very cold in the winter. Clouds and fog roll in and blanket the ground, trapping frigid air under warmer layers above.

It’s cloudy and cold in the valley, but you can rise above it. There’s a road nearby, Bogus Basin Road, that winds up the flank of Shafer Butte, a 7500’ mountain that rises out of the valley. A few minutes of driving and you break out of the fog and emerge into the warmth and brilliance of a sunlit day. You can look down on the clouds that shroud the valley and see it from a different point of view.

You can’t make yourself happy in conditions that are contrary to happiness, but you can rise above them. Little by little you can learn to withdraw from them, refusing to allow your thoughts and actions to be governed by them. You can climb up out of your misery and gloom, sit for a time on the hillside and look at things from God’s point of view. You can remind yourself that the sun is always shining even if it has not been shining on you and that everything in the valley will soon pass away. And though you can only stay for a moment you will have gained a perspective that only the mountain can know.

This is faith—the means by which we rise above our circumstances and find courage and calmness for the day.

DHR