Do You Have A Mountain To Climb?
Good Morning Friends,
Last night I heard entrepreneur, Erica Nicole, the founder of the online magazine called YFS….Young Fabulous and Self-employed. I took time to chat with her after her presentation and was impressed that her web presence has about 13 different income streams including licensing of the content to public schools and colleges. She talked about the importance of branding and of pressing on to the completion of both a product and process. And as she is talking I am thinking about the IKEA effect. This psychological reality is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially create. The name derives from the Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer IKEA, which sells many furniture products that require assembly. It is an example of when labor leads to love and I would have to say that this is true in our view of worshipping communities and of our children as well as the products and services we invest in emotionally. But this morning I am considering the IKEA effect as a motivation for a worshipping community as well as the entrepreneur on the achy ascent towards the vista where the branding of desires can be seen from a bird’s eye view. Do You Have A Mountain To Climb?
Scripture: He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:11-13 (NRSV)
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. . . . They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:6, 9 (NRSV)
Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Mark 11:22-25 (NRSV)
See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
Exodus 25:40 (NIV)
Message: Jesus climbed a lot of mountains and I image that each going up and coming down had a message. But today I wonder about why people climb mountains when most of the stories about the experience now is of the pain involved? We have all heard stories about frostbite, sore feet, and not being able to breath. Why do people climb mountains? Sure, getting to the peak and seeing the view can be pure joy, yet without the hard work, perseverance and endurance there would be no summit experience. So we ask why we value the climb. And the answer comes back…because we have invested with love. Yes I love hiking and camping in the mountains but find that most of the time I do, I am too close to see anything until I get to the top. I am sure that most of us would prefer to live on the mountaintops of spiritual and emotional highs…times when God is moving in powerful ways…times when we have a confidence, passion and excitement of the Spirit that overcomes our resistance to believe. We do so want to see the next view even as we contemplate the image of the climb in our work and worship. The process seems inevitable. No one is insulated… no one is immune. For in this experience it seems to me that we dance on both the positive and precarious sides of the Ikea Effect. We pride ourselves on being creative and action oriented. We focus on building community and programs but then we regularly submit to the dark side of the Ikea Effect. We are threatened by others who serve, thinking we are superior to our neighbors and other denominations that are nearby. The motivation for philanthropy here becomes one of competition when the reinforcement should be for working together. The question becomes how to instill a sense of do it yourself satisfaction without blocking other ideas from flourishing that might actually be better ones. We are motivated to climb for the same reasons we like to build. Owning it makes a difference. Friends, rejoice this morning knowing that God can give us a vision from the mountain top, but that our strength comes not from the power in the hills, but in the power of God who made mountains, hills, valleys, rivers and sea shores. We are the products of God’s creation. Look to unity in God for a satisfaction that lasts in a process that goes on and on……
Pray we have faith to try something new that we create together. Pray we would value putting each other’s gifts to work in combination with our own. Pray we benefit from our bias nature but not at the expense of others. Pray we would shout from the mountain tops about our joy and love of being the Body of Christ together because our work for God is self-evident without drawing attention to it. Pray we believe in a faith that moves mountains. Pray we hear the message of the mountaintop. Pray we realize that God on the mountain is still God in the valley. Pray we walk on God’s path as we climb. Pray we always remember the mountaintop and believe in a power that will make us one. Pray we see through the gossamer pattern into the fabric of life viewed from the mountaintop. Pray from the mountaintop that we get a vision of those in the valley. Pray we realize that we must walk through the valley to get to the next mountaintop.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 