Rocky Road

A favorite ice cream at our home is Rocky Road.  It is delightfully mixed and each spoonful provides a mixture of tastes and combinations.  Rocky Road causes me to think about the hikes that I've been on and my mind always wanders back to the time I was on a Rocky Road in Colorado.  It was on the barren rocky side of the mountain that, even though my energy was near exhausted, I drew on God's strength within to drag my feet to the mountain top.

Most memorable to me is a trip up a Colorado 14 footer, Mt. Elbert.  It was there that I found that the beautiful walk upwards through the forest simply gave way to the toughest part of the climb which was the open barren rocky portion of the top of the mountain.  It was there that I found that we cannot get to the mountain top without going through the rockiest part and the greatest challenges.  Like in life, you and I have to walk the rockiest part to get the mountain view.  The top reveals the big picture about what God is doing in and through our lives.

How do you know you have hit the rocky part?  When you are going through a Rocky part of life you may ask these questions:  Doesn't God know that I am hurting here?  Why doesn't God help me when I feel so all alone and secluded?  Why in the world is this happening to me; is there a reason for this to happen?

God does know that you are hurting, feeling alone, and God has the grand scheme of things just ahead of you.  Even though you want to focus on the 'right now' it will be that later you can see the mountain top view of what God is doing.  Do you have to go up the rocky way in order to see the grand scheme of what God is doing?  Jesus did.  He did that so He can show you how to do it.  And one thing that He said over and over again is, "Do not be afraid, I have overcome this."