Good morning…

There is always a morning after. After the holiday and after the surgery. After the wedding and after the funeral. After the victory and after the tragedy. Time does not stop moving us along and life is not lived forever in the deepest valley or on the mountain’s tippy-top.

At peak moments, our human nature yearns to capture the charisma, to hold on to the high. I think of the transfiguration recorded in Matthew 17:1-4 (MSG). Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out, right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face. His clothes were filled with light. Then they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there in deep conversation with him. Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain—one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?” We all want to box up life’s mountaintop moments, possessing them unblemished forever. Peter, James, and John look up, just like we do, and the amazing experience evaporates into the morning after.

Sometimes dawn finds us in a deep, dark valley. We personally experience Psalm 6:6 (NLT): I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. Wishing we could wake from the nightmare, our mind tries desperately to resuscitate our beloved old normal. Unable to change the ugly truth, how do we put our tired, heavy feet on the floor to get out of bed the morning after?

The chorus of a song we sang in youth group pops into my brain. “We’ve got to come down from the mountain top to the people in the valley below or they’ll never know that they can go to the mountain of the LORD.” The morning after begins our gradual healing, our authentic integration, our compassionate ministry of walking with others on our right foot of joy and our left foot of sorrow, step by stepping our way up and down the mountain of the LORD.

Psalm 43:3 (MSG) becomes our prayer to God each morning after: Give me your lantern and compass, give me a map, so I can find my way to the sacred mountain, to the place of your presence,
Psalm 43:3 (MSG),

Sue