The first year that we lived in Spain, we decided to spend Christmas in Zermatt, Switzerland, at the foot of the Matterhorn. After my husband, our son and I picked up our older son at the airport in Barcelona, we boarded a train for Switzerland, embarking on an exciting and beautiful journey. But to reach Zermatt, we had to change to a special train within Switzerland. 

Isolated high in the Alps, Zermatt is postcard-picturesque. An ordinance prohibiting private vehicles in the town minimizes pollution and maximizes the alpine village’s charm. The train that is capable of reaching this pristine place is a special cog-driven, third rail train that functions in a manner similar to roller coaster cars by engaging the third rail, when necessary, to pull it up inclines.

Traversing breathtakingly difficult terrain, the train makes a long uphill journey that is impossible for standard engines. As the train continues climbing, it winds its way to Zermatt along a track that sits on narrow mountainside ledges, sandwiched between steep drop-offs on one side and towering mountains on the other.

At the track’s end rests the village of Zermatt, tucked away in a place of its own. Far surpassing my expectations, which had been limited to my second-hand knowledge and imagination, I was excited to be able to experience Zermatt first-hand. My first step onto the village streets filled me with an awe that remained with me throughout our stay. While having our immediate family together was by far my best Christmas present, there was also something meaningful about not being inundated with the familiar trappings of Christmas. Having less of the insignificant made the significant stand out all the more.

When Christmas Eve arrived, we attended a worship service at the relatively small English church that was nestled against one of the numerous hillsides. The church’s quaintness added to the Christmas’ simplistic beauty. Contributing also to an overall ambiance of peace and contentment were the quietness of the snow and the absence of vehicular noise. Walking everywhere that we went, the slower pace was life transforming.

Sitting in a church pew, waiting for the service to begin, I studied the portraits on the walls. They were memorials to the Englishmen who had forfeited their lives attempting to climb the Matterhorn. Undeterred by the death that had threatened them, they had dared to go where few would be willing to go. Though deemed foolhardy by many, they had blazed trails that would later guide others. Their deliberate boldness to attempt to surmount the seemingly insurmountable left a permanent mark on me.

Inspired by the setting, as well as excited by the opportunity that the time and place afforded us, my family decided to have our own Alpine mountain experience. Renting ski equipment, we headed uphill one morning via an underground (better said, “inside mountain”) train. Making multiple stops along the ascent, the train enabled skiers to access various parts of the mountain. Thinking that we knew what we were doing, we got off at the first stop, expecting to ski down one of the mountain’s gentler slopes. So, strapping on our skis, we headed downhill.

But the nature of the downhill was completely unexpected. It was steep (really, really steep), much steeper than any slope that we—novice skiers at best—had ever been on. In addition, its curves added to its difficulty level.

Our sons, being both younger and stronger, as well as having skied more recently than my husband and I, fared the slope better than we did. To my husband’s credit, though, he also managed to control his descent, despite lagging behind our sons. But I, on the other hand, was struggling. I was in trouble.

Not until I was on the slope did I realize that I needed a strength, as well as an expertise, that I did not possess. Without them, I could not successfully overcome the slope’s degree of difficulty. My lack of knowledge regarding both the place and my limitations had led me to attempt to do what I was insufficiently empowered to do. Unintentionally, I had put myself in a precarious situation that also inhibited the other skiers coming behind me.

After struggling through multiple failed attempts to control my descent, I relented to the truth. Conceding my pride, I removed my skis and walked down the far edge of the slope, trying my best to stay out of the way of those who were better prepared to meet the slope’s challenge.

My misplacement that day was self-generated, born out of ignorance. I had assumed that all mountains are constructed in basically the same way, that they just come in different sizes. Had I used a little upfront humility and inquired ahead of time about this particular mountain, I would have learned differently.

Assumptions abound in our thinking. They are necessary for efficiency in our daily decision-making and living. Otherwise, we would be forever reinventing the wheel, so to speak. But inappropriate dependence upon assumptive thinking leads to arrogance, which in turn can lead to our downfall, as it did (literally) for me on the ski slope.

The fact is that mountains differ in formation, as well as in size. Unlike the small Appalachian foothills to which we were accustomed, this giant Alpine mountain had been created differently. The gentler slopes that we had anticipated were not at the mountain’s base, where we had assumed them to be, but on the higher mountain plateaus—the place where we had least expected to find them. We never suspected that, to attain what we needed, we should have gone higher.

Higher! The place that logic had told us was not meant for us was, in actuality, the very place that we should have gone. It was the place that was designed to meet our needs and to further equip us.

A similar statement can be made regarding the Christian life in God’s Kingdom on Earth. Consider the parallel picture that the overall Zermatt experience depicts in relation to both Kingdom life and how certain assumptions can affect that life.

As the third rail train had provided access to Zermatt, so the Third Person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit of God) is the One capable of making the “uphill journey” to provide access into God’s Kingdom. Drawing us to God, He enables us to “get on-board” with God’s plan of redemption through our acceptance of salvation in Christ Jesus. By His power alone are we able to enter into the Kingdom by saying “yes” to Christ.

The Kingdom, set apart from the world at large, can be neither seen nor experienced until we arrive there. With matchless beauty and serenity, the Kingdom is dedicated to the glorification of God through the worship of Jesus Christ. Celebrating Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection, the Kingdom is a “place” where the eternally significant abounds, taking precedence over everything temporal. It is a “place,” where (unlike the rest of the world) love and mercy direct all steps.

The first to “walk” the Kingdom streets on Earth, the original Apostles went where Jesus had instructed them to go. Climbing a spiritual “Mountain” by the power of the Holy Spirit, they dedicated their lives to God, serving those who would follow. They also forfeited their lives (in this world) for the same purpose.

Their lives and deaths are memorials—testimonies—to the Truth of God’s Kingdom that prevails in both this world and the next. Empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak and live the full Gospel Truth, they blazed trails into the world’s misunderstanding of God, pointing countless numbers to the One and Only Way into God’s Kingdom and into transformed lives.

Once in the Kingdom, Christians can live out their days on Earth in enjoyment of the Kingdom’s many benefits. They can come together in church services, worshiping God and learning about the Kingdom experiences of the Apostles and other disciples of Jesus. They can live a safe life, sure of the security that the Kingdom promises, all the while observing the spiritual “Mountain” of God only from a distance, thinking that “Mountain” experiences are not for them.

But the “Mountain” is the Kingdom. To not experience the “Mountain” personally is to miss the purpose of the Kingdom’s existence. As the village of Zermatt exists because of the Matterhorn, the Kingdom exists because of its King (God Almighty). God’s intent in bringing us into the Kingdom is that we would have ongoing personal experiences with Him, experiences that are beyond the world’s comprehension.

The Kingdom of God is not just a different version of the physical world, but a different world altogether. It is a spiritual world that operates beyond the physical, one that seems illogical to the rest of the world. Kingdom life is a life of reversals, replacing hate with love, division with reconciliation, retaliation with forgiveness and selfishness with generosity. Attaining these lofty objectives (and much more) requires a “lift”—an empowerment that is only acquired within the Kingdom in Oneness with the King, who is Power. 

As the Zermatt Experience had required two train rides: one TO Zermatt and another WITHIN the mountain, the Kingdom life that is available to us requires Holy Spirit power for two life altering events. First, He is needed to carry us INTO the Kingdom, and then He is needed WITHIN the Kingdom to provide greater spiritual experiences (intimacy) with God through His permanent indwelling Presence.

To take the first “trip” into the Kingdom, but not the second, is to settle for less than God’s best for us. Such a decision is often made by default in ignorance (unawareness) of what God has prepared for us. Leaning on worldly thinking that we carry with us into the Kingdom, we may incorrectly assume that a little of God is sufficient, that higher spiritual plateaus do not exist or that such a place isn’t “right” for us. The assumption can send us down the slopes of life’s challenges ill prepared to overcome them, struggling in ways that could have been avoided.

The Matterhorn is an enormous mountain, one that is highly respected for its world-renown precipices (steep drop-offs and sheer cliffs). Yet it is climbable. Its name is a combination of two German words meaning “meadow” and “peak.” The name alludes to movement from the meadow at the base of the mountain to the mountain’s peak, implying that the peak can be reached.

Indeed, the mountain has been climbed to various heights by many. But everyone who experiences the mountain in any way is transformed by the experience. Forfeiting some things along the way, yet gaining others, the sojourners always return to village life as changed individuals, forever marked by the incredibility of the mountain itself.

So does every “Mountain” experience with God mark us forever, changing us in ways that nothing else can. Lifted to new levels of intimacy with God, the Holy Spirit enables us to let go of things that are detrimental to the Kingdom way of living, while grasping the things that transform our lives for the better.

Every “spiritual climb” is intensely personal, unexplainable fully to others, even to other “climbers.” But the testimony of each and every “climber” is important, having at its root the desire to confirm the “climb’s” reality. To assume that such a “climb” is not a reality, or is not a reality meant for us specifically, is to question the provision of God. Likewise, to assume that such a “climb” isn’t possible by us is to question the power of God.

Every person in the world is at one time or another just one decision—one Holy Spirit “ride”—from entering the Kingdom of God.  And every Christian entering the Kingdom is just one decision from greater intimacy with God in this world.

God calls all of us to come up to His level, to join Him on one higher plateau after another, moved along by the power of God. The Only Way to do that is to get on-board and to stay on-board with God’s provision of Himself, the Holy Spirit Enabler.

And it must be vitally important that we do so. For, after all, God came down to our level to pick us up, didn’t He?

Who, but God, would have ever pictured that scenario?

.

INTO:  “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.”  (Mark 3:13)

WITHIN:  “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high…”  (Revelation 21:10a)

This past Easter, my husband and I celebrated the holiday with our two sons and their families at the home of one son and his wife. Driving home the following afternoon, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant that is in a major shopping area about an hour from our house.

Pulling into a parking space along the front of a restaurant, we went into the restaurant to eat. Returning to our car after our meal, my husband turned the ignition switch, but nothing—–absolutely nothing—–happened. Not even a single light appeared on the dashboard. We tried various things that we knew to try, but they all produced the same result. Indications were that our car had a very dead battery.

“Luckily,” though, we weren’t far from an auto parts store, where a battery could be purchased. But “as luck would have it,” our foreign make car requires a special battery. Additionally, while the terminals for the battery are easily accessible, the battery itself is hidden away in an obscure place. On top of that, whenever the battery is disconnected, the car’s computer system must be reset. Replacing the battery would have to be done by professionals, not by us.

“Luckily,” though, we weren’t very far from both the car dealership and the garage that my husband uses when necessary. But then, “as luck would have it,” the time was after 6 p.m., and they were both closed. Their help would not be available until morning.

Thus far, our “luck” did not appear to be holding.

Our next option was to try using jumper cables to jump-start our car, so that we could at least drive home. But there was no one in the parking lot to ask for help.

“Luckily,” though, we had an auto club membership that could supply us with the jump that we needed. But “as luck would have it,” after dialing the auto service’s number and waiting for ten minutes in their telephone queue, we were suddenly disconnected.

“Luckily” though, a restaurant employee, willing and able to take a few minutes away from his job, agreed to use his vehicle to jump-start our car. So after rolling our car out of its parking space and pushing it over to the curb, the two car batteries were hooked together.

But “as luck would have it,” the jump was only slightly successful. The dashboard lights now came on when the ignition switch was turned, but the engine still did not make a sound. The attempt had only been able to rejuvenate the battery to a small degree. After several more tries without further improvement, the employee returned to work, and we returned (figuratively speaking) to the drawing board.

Running out of options, we decided to call the auto service number one more time, despite the previous disconnect. “Luckily,” though, this time we got through the automated answering system to talk to a person. The woman on the other end of the phone listened carefully as we explained our situation. Then she suggested that we skip having her send someone to try to jump-start the vehicle, since that had already been tried, and that we go straight to having her send a wrecker to tow our vehicle to the car dealership, where it could sit overnight. We agreed, and she quickly confirmed a plan with a local towing service. But “as luck would have it,” the wrecker service wouldn’t be able to get to us for seventy minutes. We would just have to wait.

But our problem, appearing partially solved, wasn’t over yet. We still needed a way to get home. So while we waited for the wrecker, we called our son, who “luckily” lives relatively close to where we were stranded. Also “luckily,” he was home from work, available and willing to be our taxi service. Arriving a short time later, he helped transfer our personal items from our vehicle to his. Then the three of us waited for the wrecker’s arrival.

After ninety minutes had passed, the woman with the auto service called us back to check on our status. Learning that we were still waiting, she then checked on the status of the wrecker. But “as luck would have it,” the wrecker had been delayed and wouldn’t arrive for another twenty minutes or so.

“Luckily,” though, while we continued waiting, our son remembered that he had a pair of super-sized jumper cables in the particular vehicle that he “luckily” had driven that night.  He suggested that it might be worth using them to try to jump-start our car one more time while we waited. The larger diameter cables, having less resistance to current flow, might provide sufficient power to start our car’s engine, something that the standard cables had been incapable of doing. He also suggested (having “luckily” read the recommendation somewhere) that we allow the vehicles to simply sit for a few minutes, once they were connected, before attempting to start our car. The idea contradicts the traditional jump-start procedure of minimizing the time that the two batteries are connected, but we decided to give it a try.

So our son’s vehicle was turned on and the batteries were connected. While we stood talking, the cables did their job, transferring power to the battery that was in need from the battery that had ample to give. When the ignition switch in our car was turned, the engine started right up. It had received what it needed:  a super charge.

We rejoiced, of course, at the “lucky” turn of events. But beyond the happy ending, there is more to the story.

When we had first discovered that our car would not start, we had prayed, asking God to start the engine in order to get us home. While my husband continued trying to start the engine, I continued asking God to start the car. But the words that I came to pray were specific words that had come to mind during the prayer. I asked (and kept asking) for “the power transfer that we need.”

When I asked, God could have supernaturally transferred power from Himself to our car’s battery to alleviate our problem immediately. But He didn’t.

For quite some time that evening, the prayer appeared to be going completely unanswered. In fact, nothing appeared to be going right. We did everything that we knew to do, to no (apparent) avail. Our prayers didn’t appear to be any more beneficial or effective than our “luck.” The immediate result that we had hoped to receive from the prayer just did not occur. The longer that time went on that evening, the more our hope of receiving the answer that we wanted faded into the background of events. By the time that the wrecker had been called, we had essentially given up all hope of driving our car home that night.

Then, when we least expected it, the power transfer that we needed (the one for which we had prayed) came. It came in a way that we could not have anticipated. It came through our son, who “luckily” lived nearby, who “luckily” was available to give us a ride, who “luckily” had driven his vehicle that contained the heavy cables—–the cables that he “luckily” had purchased once upon a time for just such a need.

It came through a tow truck that was late, an auto service employee who skipped over the standard procedure, a good Samaritan whose efforts were insufficient and a disconnected phone call. It came through all of the “it didn’t work” ideas that had come to mind to try.

“The power transfer that we needed” came through all of the “negative” results that, on their own, had not helped… except to lead us to the next step. The answer to our prayer and need had been in delivery the entire time, from the moment that the prayer had first been made. We just couldn’t see it coming.

We had wanted and were looking for immediate relief. But the set up that we needed to walk through, in order to get to the solution that God had prepared for us specifically, was a process apart from what we were expecting. The process in which we were unknowingly immersed was itself our answer. Every step that we were led to take, though appearing fruitless, actually moved us closer to the desired result.

Sometimes in life, we have the “good luck” of experiencing our prayers being answered immediately, as we hope them to be answered, and we rejoice. But sometimes the answers are a long time in coming, arriving in ways that we could never have expected, causing us to rejoice all the more at their arrival.

The reality of both immediate and delayed answers to prayer are explained in the Book of Daniel. In chapter nine, the angel Gabriel, sent to deliver the answer to Daniel’s prayer, tells Daniel that “As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.” (Daniel 9:23a)

But in the very next chapter, a different situation arises when the answer to Daniel’s prayer is delayed in getting to him. The one delivering the answer to Daniel explains the delay. “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come to respond to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the prince of Persia. Now I have come…” (Daniel 12b-13a)

The delay was not God-desired, but a result of circumstances that had to be overcome. Our son, unbeknownst to us, had been equipped (prepared ahead of time by God) with the provision that we needed to solve our problem. But unaware of that fact, we had no reason to call him for help… until we needed a ride. That was the point to which God had been delivering us all along: the connection point between our problem and our solution.

Man’s knowledge is limited, but God’s is not. God works outside of time and space, going ahead of us to prepare our deliverance in advance of the adversity that is coming our way. He knows where we will be and what we will need every moment of our lives. Nothing takes God by surprise. If we have a problem, God has a solution. The solution, though, doesn’t always look the way that we envision it.

When what we see doesn’t match up with what we expect, it is due to our limited perspective, not God’s indifference. While God is busily maneuvering us through our limitations, we may not be able to see our answer coming any more than Daniel could see his.

Actually, there is quite a bit that we can’t see, such as why some answers (as we define them) to prayer never seem to come. We want to know why a loving God doesn’t simply “poof” us out of our problems, as a fairy godmother would do. But to limit God to being a fairy godmother would limit the eternal unseen Goodness that God provides behind the scenes, limiting His actions to our vision.

God’s ways are far greater than our ways, incorporating both the needs and provisions of many into the situations of each one. In doing so, God strengthens our connections to one another, as well as to God. If we focus only on the details (especially the ones that aren’t going the way that we want them to go), we can miss the big picture. We can allow the obvious to keep us from seeing the unexpected.

Sometimes (many times) the answer to our prayers (the “boost” of assistance that we need from God) is bigger (much bigger) than we realize. Sometimes we need more than that for which we even know to ask. Sometimes we need to persevere through circumstances that don’t appear to be changing, except maybe to worsen. Sometimes we need to lay aside our limited understanding and ask God for a glimpse of His vision. And sometimes we need to step purposefully around our own disappointment to trust in God’s vision for us.

God’s provision to our every need is always present, initiating the very prayer that jump-starts our faith to action and sets the delivery process in motion. With every step of faith that we take, we step further into God’s provision for us, empowered through our God-provided connection to Him. Empowering the words that we pray, God strengthens our faith in His faithfulness, delivering us into greater trust of God. Prayer is “the power transfer that we all need” in every circumstance in life.

When all was said and done that night in the restaurant parking lot, it was the bigger cables that saved the day, while we stood by, relaxing–—doing nothing but allowing the cables to do their job. It was the connection that mattered.

And in the end, our connection to The Source of all power is all that will matter.

To stay connected, pray; and pray to stay connected.  It works both ways.

.

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”  (James 5:16)