Letter From A Father To A Struggling Son
I know you claim they didn’t impress you, but the mountains in Banff Canada were awesome. In my prayer time this week, they were a huge inspiration to me, and I want to share that with you.
I remember the tour guide saying that these mountains were NOT the highest in the Rockies. The Grand Tetons were about 1,000 feet higher on average. However, the valleys in Banff were about 3,000 feet lower than the valleys in the Teton range. Therefore, the mountains in Banff had the appearance of being much higher. You are in one of these extremely low valleys now, our whole family is. But believe it or not, someday you are going to look back on this as a blessing.
So many people live lives of quiet mediocrity. They don’t take chances because they don’t want to fail. They don’t totally love someone because they don’t want to get hurt. They don’t give their life to Jesus because it may make them less popular. They try so hard to avoid the valleys that they never even venture into the really great mountain ranges. God hates lives of mediocrity. He says in the book of Revelations “Oh how I wish you were either hot, or cold, but since you are lukewarm, I will spit you out.”
Because you are in this deep valley, I know God has chosen to not let you live in mediocrity. God has chosen to allow you to walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” for a reason. You may feel like you are not only in the valley, but drowning in that valley. But just like Pete when he walked on the water and then started to sink, if you reach out, Jesus will rescue you. I know, he will.
But what is really awesome, is what lies ahead of you. If you grab Jesus’ hand and hold on, he not only wants to rescue you from drowning, he wants to lead you up the mountain. Because your valley is so deep, what lies ahead of you is a gloriously long journey with Jesus up the side of a grand and awesome mountain. Your Jesus from deep valley to high mountain peak, will be grand.
I know you have heard that success is not a destination, but a way of travelling. Coming up out of this valley and exploring these mountains with Jesus is something like that. It isn’t arriving at the top that is awesome, it is struggling with Jesus up the side of the mountain. You will go up some, and sometimes slide back down a little, and go up some more.
But for you, when you look down into the valley, it will mean more to you than most people. At first you will hate looking at that valley. But someday, you will look down and this valley will be as beautiful as the valleys in Banff appeared when we were high in the mountains. I know if I had to live my life over, I would never avoid the time in my valley, as painful as it was, because now I see great love there.
And because you have been in this valley, someday when someone else is here in their valley, you will be truly able to tell them, with the love and certainty that I am now, that this is a calling from Jesus himself, to a life journey that is amazing and awesome, like those mountains in Banff. “Turn to the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding”, and you are in for blessings you cannot possibly imagine. Jesus has chosen to allow you to struggle in the deepest of valleys and he will lead you to awesome mountain peaks, and you are in for a great and wonderful journey. He will not allow you to live a life a mediocrity. You not only have a future son, you and Jesus have a awesome future.
