Coming off the Mountain Top

When I stepped off the plane, home from my mission trip, I wanted a Vernor's....really bad. I felt sick from the plane ride. Yes, those were my thoughts when we finally touched down in Detroit from Germany. The car ride was surreal after being away for 10 days in a foreign country. I was glad to be back home but my heart was focused on Christ and the time I had spent doing His work. I wanted to go back to Germany and continue to reach people for Christ.

I learned about Mountain Top Experiences in BSF this past year. The term comes from the Bible and here is the mountain Peter was on--

Matthew 17
The Transfiguration
1After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

Can you imagine? Put yourself in Peter’s place. You have been listening and following Jesus for awhile now. You have this feeling about him…like Jesus might be the real deal. Still, you don’t fully understand. Then, Jesus takes you to the top of a mountain and changes right before your eyes. Crazy stuff like his face is radiating light and he becomes completely white. And if that isn’t enough to make you crap yourself, Moses and Elijah are suddenly there. But now you are surely crapping yourself because you actually hear the voice of God!

5While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

Peter didn’t want to leave. He was in the perfect place, hanging with his buddies John and James but also surrounded by Moses, Elijah, Jesus and God. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay there with them in that way forever. He was willing to build them shelters (I smile at Peter’s naive excitement--so much like me).

6When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." 8When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

So the answer to Peter’s suggestion of staying on the mountain was no. Peter couldn’t stay there. He followed Jesus back down the mountain and they met a desperate father.

The Healing of a Boy With a Demon

14When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15"Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."

17"O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." 18Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.

19Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
20He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."[a]

I’m not sure why the disciples didn’t believe they could heal the boy but that has nothing to do with this blog entry. Here is my point. The Lord led the group up the mountain. He revealed to them his authority and spiritual realm. He showed them Moses and Elijah…even God showed up. It was a mountain top experience and they wanted to stay there forever. The peace, the miracles, the absolute awesomeness of the entire situation—I would have wanted to stay, too. But no. Jesus brought them back down. And what was the first thing they did when they returned? Served others. Healed a boy.

When I came back from my mission trip, I immediately wanted to go on another one. I wanted to stay in those moments surrounded by the Holy Spirit, feeling Jesus so strongly, walking with Him and being consumed by the need to share Him with others. But I had to come home.

A month after I was home, Dan Price did a teaching on being a missionary. He discussed all the different mission trips Riverview supports and sends people out on. He then said something I needed to hear. He said the same thing Peter needed to hear from Jesus. No matter where you are, you are on mission. At work, at home, at the store, at a football game, at school, at a concert, at the bar, at the park, running a 5K….you are on a mission. Now, this does not mean you outcast yourself by constantly talking about Christ to everyone around you (that doesn’t go over so well). What it does mean is you serve the people in your life or the people you meet for a brief moment. Holding the door for a woman with a stroller, helping out at the Shared Pregnancy Center, listening to a pre-Christian friend cry about her live-in boyfriend…serving others in a million different ways and praying God gives you the opportunity to share Christ with them. Serving along with living your life as an example—on a mission.

A friend of mine went on his first mission trip somewhere in Europe. He was so moved by what he saw and the mountain top experience was so awesome that he wanted to quit his job to go back to the country to serve them. But God doesn’t necessarily want us to quit our jobs and move to where the mountain top experience occurred. He calls some of us to do that but not all of us. He gives us the mountain top experiences so that we can go back down the mountain to serve others. It’s like he fills us up so we have enough spiritual fuel to go on down here in the trenches, where he needs us as well. My friend who was going to give up his job and move to Europe prayed about the decision. He didn’t make a quick move but waited on the Lord. The day he realized God wanted him to stay put was the day he took his future wife on their first date.

God gives us mission trips, Christian conferences, teachings on Saturday night and Sunday mornings, spiritual retreats and so on to charge us but we can’t always stay there. These are magical moments, glimpses inside heaven and they keep us going in order to serve, teach, march forward until the next mountain top experience.