Are you trying to carry the mountain instead of climbing it?

• By candidasullivan
• December 13, 2023
• No Comments

While listening to a podcast, I heard something that stood out. She said, “We are trying to carry the mountain that we are just supposed to climb.”

It made me stop and think about my life. So often, I make things harder on myself because I try to do God’s job and think that I can fix people when I just need to love them and then work on myself. I get overwhelmed because I try to control things that can’t be controlled. I try to carry other people’s crosses and neglect my own.

When I focus on myself and what I need to change in my life, I can see clearly how to help someone else. Anytime, however, that I feel the need to magnify someone else’s sins, then I need to stop and look at myself.

Love forgives. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is understanding. Love is compassionate. Love is unconditional.

I need to examine myself if I feel anything other than those things. So often, when I think someone else should do something, it is really me who should do something. If I see someone else struggling in their lives, I need to pray for them and seek God’s counsel to help them. Putting my foot on them while they are already down is not walking in God’s love.

I read about Stephen and how they stoned him to death. Instead of lashing out at them angrily, he asked God not to lay the sin to their charge. Even as they were causing him extreme pain and taking his life, he extended God’s love to them. At that moment, Stephen could have hated them for what they had done to him, but he chose to love them instead.

Acts 7:60 (KJV)

60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The enemy is the one who makes us think we have to carry the mountain and fix everything ourselves. He wants us to become overwhelmed and angry with others. God, however, wants us to love them. Sometimes, loving them means that we need to pray for them and wish them well. Every day, we get to choose how we are going to respond. I want to respond with God’s amazing love.

I believe that when I walk in God’s amazing love, I can climb the mountain and even enjoy the journey.