THE DOWNHILL CLIMB

Have you ever had the physical experience of walking up a hill or even a mountain and found the trek up to the top to be easier than the walk down? If so, you’re like many people who are surprised that the challenge in getting to the peak pales in comparison to navigating the way back down. Most of us don’t realize that the muscles used on the downhill slope are quite different from those required on the rise. And then, there is the added issue of balance that figures more prominently as we descend. Add to that the fading of exhilaration of having just seen a magnificent vista coupled with the onset of awareness that this view is gone and that the hard work and potential danger of the descent is only beginning. No pun intended, it can produce quite a letdown. In life, there are all kinds of mountaintops and all kinds of valleys.

In a conversation about this with Michael Canale, whose insightful idea this was, we decided that, spiritually, things are not so different from this physical phenomenon. Have you ever had a profound and amazing mountaintop experience with God, only to find a few hours later, as you spiritually decompress, that all of the unspeakable joy and peace of that encounter start to dim and lose traction in your soul? Not only do previous doubts and worries start to resurface, but, instead, they accelerate beyond the old norm for them. Everything seems worse than ever and surprisingly so because of the euphoria you so recently felt. It’s the same spiritually as climbing the hill is physically; the descent from the summit carries with it a challenge that can disillusion and even result in hopelessness, which is such a danger. How is God to deal with this; how are you to navigate your way down the mountain and not lose your footing and fall?

If you, like most people, have experienced the challenge of the downhill climb, so to speak, you are also in very good Biblical company. While Scripture is replete with examples, perhaps none is more illustrative than that of the prophet Elijah and his encounter with God on Mount Carmel. Yes, he had a spiritual mountaintop experience on an actual mountain in Israel. He was there on mission for God who told him to go to King Ahab, King of the northern kingdom of Israel and a thoroughly evil monster of a king who had long since fallen away from God and started worshipping Baal. Baal was no ordinary idol but was one despicable in every way. At God’s behest, Elijah, God’s faithful servant, challenged Ahab’s 400 Prophets of Baal to a true showdown, one that would prove, once and for all, who had true power, God Himself or the idol, Baal. It was a high stakes situation with Elijah and God pitted  against the 400 Prophets of Baal and everyone from Israel summoned to Mount Carmel to watch.

Bulls were placed on the altars, one Elijah’s and the other the Baal prophets’.  The god who was able to rain down fire on his altar would be the true God.

As 1 Kings 18-19 chronicle, the 400 prophets called on Baal from morning until noon, with Elijah confidently taunting them to, “Shout louder…maybe he is sleeping.” (1 Kings 18:27) The prophets shouted louder, slashing themselves with swords and spears until their blood flowed. This went on until evening.

Finally, Elijah placed his bull on his altar, three times pouring four jars of water on it and the wood, as well as filling a trench of water around the altar. When Elijah called on God, fire came down burning everything on the altar and even absorbing all the water. All of Israel saw this and declared God as the true God. Additionally, though there had been years of drought, God, as Elijah predicted, caused it to rain in a downpour.

What a victory for Elijah! Talk about a mountaintop experience! Was he elated, happy as never before? Only briefly. When Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, heard about what had happened on the mountain, she sent a threat to Elijah that he would be dead by the same time the next day. Did he scoff at her threat, having just seen God’s immeasurable power? No, he ran for his life to the desert, lamenting that he might as well die and “join his ancestors in the grave.” Elijah was distraught, out of steam and out of faith in God. Going down the mountain of his mountaintop victory, he had a letdown hardly rivaled in all of the Bible. It was after his triumph over his enemy, after his spiritual high on Mount Carmel, that his difficulty came. It was the downhill slope that put him in a spiritual and physical desert.

What does God do with us when, like Elijah, we have this downward turn in our lives? He sends angels to care for us. They can come in many different forms. He tends to us, once again giving us the sense of purpose we had on the mountaintop.

Elijah, who had crawled into a cave at the base of another mountain, Mount Horeb, the Mountain of God, “heard God tell him to, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain.” and that “The LORD was going to pass by.” (1 Kings 19;11-13, NIV)

Then, “A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake, fire, but God wasn’t in the fire. (1 Kings 19:11-13, The Message)

How did God manifest Himself to Elijah? “And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (1 Kings 19:12) God spoke to Elijah, and He speaks to us today, gently and personally and in that still, calm voice.

Our God is faithful on the mountain and He is faithful in the valley. So, when you leave the mountain heights and lose your spiritual high on that treacherous downhill climb, know that He is with you there. Listen for God’s whisper and know that it is meant for you and you alone as you journey through the highs and lows along life’s way.