Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: HOT (08/10/17)
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TITLE: Miracle on the Mountain | Previous Challenge Entry
By Julie Willersdorf
08/15/17 -
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I have been here before. Hot, dry summers and running out of water. No one died of thirst. We all survived. We will survive again. But today, today it is overwhelming. It’s the day following what was another hot and stifling day. Yesterday also found me in 40 degree heat and yesterday found me saying goodbye to my husband of thirty four years marriage. Now as the heat surrounds me my store of fragile emotions is kicked over with the news of no water anywhere rebounding through my brain dragging up past memories with their attached emotions of waterless times.
“I’ve been here before, Lord, running out of water, but surely I didn’t need this today. I just buried my husband yesterday. Isn’t that enough to deal with? I‘ve had it with water issues. Why today of all days?â€
I was crumpling under it all. I needed to escape but there was no way of escaping this heat. Just as the heat was encompassing me thickly so too were my emotions which were what I was really trying to escape from, the grief, the heartache, the sorrow.
"I need to climb my mountain." My mountain was a hill on my property with a large rock on top. I had frequented that hill several times in the ten days since my husband had passed away. There I had met with the Lord and it was there He had met with me and bathed and treated my bleeding open wounds of grief.
I slowly trudged up the hill, hoping desperately there I would find deliverance from my loss, my lack, my longing. I tried to sing a song about going to the mountain of the Lord. Some mutterings hardly posing as melody tumbled from my mouth. With head bent low and feet dragging I hear the taunts, the lies from the forked tongue of the enemy. “There is no hope. There is no help. There is no song.â€
I see a fledgling bird fallen from its nest flailing about on the ground. Its parents were desperately trying to get its attention and help it. As I looked at the helpless bird I saw tangibly what my situation was. I was no different to the bird. I was that bird, floundering, helpless.
As I reached the top I slumped down on the ground and leant against the rock. “Lord, how do I get out of this mess?â€
“Look up†was His reply.
I thought of the bird whose parents were trying to get its attention. “But how?â€
“Look to the cross, to what I did for you.â€
I focused my thoughts upon the cross, upon the anguish, the pain, the suffering, the abandonment, the aloneness which Jesus went through, multiplied many, many times over. In comparison my own suffering seemed to dim into insignificance. I saw my flailing, my complaining, my lack of trust, my grief, my sorrow all of it placed upon Jesus. He had borne it already for me. He saw it, He experienced it, He paid for it. Why was I carrying it about, letting it weigh me down?
A verse from scripture came to mind, “I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.†(Ps 34:1 KJV) I read this verse the day before Ian left for glory and had said, “Lord I want that to be me.†It certainly hadn’t been happening this day.
Now however, having lifted my eyes heavenward the Lord lifted my downcast spirit up and filled my mouth with that scripture. I stood up and sang the words repeatedly as I strode down the mountain.
It was still hot but there was a song and a miracle on the mountain.
Non Fiction
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Well written emotional personal story.
I liked the raw emotions of your mountain top experience..
The ending was so uplifting.
I may change the beginning so it is less wordy and incorporates the first two paragraphs. You may want show instead of tell.
Thank you for sharing such a painful experience into a meaningful entry.
This was a heart-warming story.
I hope to see your writing in the intermediate level.