This picture is of the hike I took on my last birthday. The trail starts at 6,223 feet elevation and ends at a little over 10,000 feet so the views are amazing all along this beautiful trail. I didn’t make it to the very top of the mountain, but I didn’t mind, I think the climb leading up to the look out where we stopped was more fun than getting to the final peak. For some on the trail it was all about the end, the goal, the destination the 10,000 feet top. Infact as I was coming down a few hikers asked how the peak was, when I said I didn’t go all the way they acted like my hike was a waist but to me just to get out and hike some was all I wanted to do.

Isn’t it like us though, to think life is all about the mountain tops and the final goal instead of the peace of just being where we are. The simple joy in just purely living. We tend to miss so much when we put the goal ahead of our day-to-day life.

I think that one of the reasons we can get so anxious and unhappy with our life is that we expect to have one big life on the mountain top. One goal after another, almost as if we would like to take a helicopter ride from mountain top to mountain top so we never have to deal with the hard climb, the sweat or dirt that gets us up to that beautiful top. What if life happens and we end up just only making it to a lookout point but not the final peak? Would that still be, okay? Would you still find the beauty at the lookout point, or would you feel like your life isn’t as good as the other people who “made” it to the mountain top.

When I find myself looking at the other people who have that kind of life. The people that seem to make it to the final top and stay there, I can be happy for them or start to get envious and not be happy with just my lookout spot but for me I choose to be happy, not trade in my peace for envy. Maybe my life is just a lookout point and not the glorious mountaintop but that’s okay too because it’s my life and my lookout point. The great expression, “In acceptance lieth peace” is so true.

(Foot note the expression is from a poem by Amy Carmichael but my mom would say this to me all the time growing up)

I like this image of phones, back when we would have to pick up the call to find out who or why people were calling, it was almost braver to pick up not knowing who was on the other end. Now we have the luxury of screening calls, if you recognize or like the number then you’ll pick up. If you aren’t sure of the number or maybe, you don’t like that person then the best option is voice mail and even then, you can screen and choose what you’ll do. It’s almost like we don’t have to acknowledge what we don’t want to and only acknowledge the enjoyable or easy.

Perhaps, this is a reflection on how we are now handling life.

Just the other week I had a call that went to my voice mail because I have my phone on vibrate but even if I didn’t, I’m sure I wouldn’t have answered it because it was a number I didn’t recognize. I did notice I had a voice mail, so I listened, and even though her voice was pleasant, and the message wasn’t rude I delayed returning her call, almost as if I could delay hearing what I already knew, almost as if I delayed calling her back then I wouldn’t have to hear my pathology results and life would still be okay. I could spend just a few more hours not having my worst-case scenario happen but of course I had to call her back and face one of the worst things a person can hear.

How many times do we get those calls in life? The call from the doctor, the nock at the door in the middle of the night or papers given to us that we would rather never see. To hear the worst news can rock our world, it can make us wish for a life that is happy where all you have to do is not pick up and all is fine.

Although I did get that call and life as I knew it is changed, it’s just that I still have life for now. An easy life was never promised but yet we live like it was. Changed life or not I still have the gift of waking up. We never know when our last day to wake up will be. Not to get sappy here but knowing this somehow helps in a weird way and knowing I’m not alone in the good and the really hard days is what helps me the most.

All I do is call God who never screens calls, and he will give all I need for that moment.

John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Isaiah 41:10

“So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Psalm 34:18

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

“You know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, just literally 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.”

― Benjamin Mee-We Bought a Zoo

I have never seen the movie but maybe now I will. When I read that quote and thought how true. I couldn’t have read it at a better time. I was having one of those days when having a meltdown sounds pretty good and if I was a baby, I’m sure I would have. You know those days you wake up maybe a little crabby and all the normal things that you do in the morning without effort take effort and don’t go smooth. You start to wonder if you should have stayed in bed, but you can’t because life goes on even if it’s not smoothly.

This was were I was at but trying to make the best of it when I read that quote. My mind went into over drive I thought I have 20 seconds to be kind and not have a crabby attitude. I think that was the longest 20 seconds I have had in awhile but I made it through. I moved on with a little more of my day with that thought of I can be nice for 20 seconds and for me on a crabby day that is real courage.

That day kept me in the moment, it kept me mindful, and how to be nice when I don’t want to be. How when everything feels like its just one big crap shoot you can still rise above it even if it is just for 20 seconds at a time.

20 seconds may seem short, but when you are trying to have “insane courage” and be “embarrassing brave” it’s a lifetime. Isn’t it just that, how funny when broken down it can be so do able. If done, then that is when we get “something that is great”. We get a good life even when things are going just the opposite of great. Even in a moment when you get the dreadful call with some news you never wanted or thought you would ever get 20 seconds of stepping out of our bad mood and being kind is just as infectious as the problems but what peace and contentment we have, making others want it.

Maybe next time someone cuts you off or miss treats you think 20 seconds, I know I will. We all are walking in some really uncomfortable shoes now but 20 seconds of kindness goes a long way and who can’t be brave for 20 seconds?

This did help me; my day stayed the same and the news was just as bad, but my attitude didn’t and with a better attitude, I could handle life a little better.

I also started to remember a Bible verse I love because it really breaks down what is required of us and it is simple especially when done at 20 second intervals.

Micah 6:8

⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,^[a]
    and to walk humbly with your God?