HEARTLIGHT ® Magazine: Special Feature: "What's Your Hill to Climb?"


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lls he had to climb, until his mom left church crying one Sunday. Catching up to her, I asked if I could help.

“No,” she sobbed, “as the communion tray was passed, they skipped Bob! It’s like they don’t see him because he is just a little person in a wheelchair.”

After she calmed down and went back into the service, I sat down on a bench in the foyer. I loosened my tie and thought awhile. Of course I would talk to those passing the communion trays. Of course the slight was unintentional. At the same time, I faced a hard question: “Am I skipping over Bob?”

A week later, my family and I were invited to their home for Sunday evening dinner. We all sat in the living room, but there was no Bob and no wheelchair in sight! As we relaxed in the living room, something large shot across the floor behind me. It skittered around the corner, and then into the kitchen. It took me a moment to realize that the skittering blur was Bob!

No one else said a thing. No one seemed surprised. You see, Bob was only “mobility impaired” when he was confined to his wheelchair and around big crowds in tight spaces. At home, he could zoom around the house at what seemed like the speed of light, using his powerful upper arms to quickly skitter around the rooms.

All of us have problems to deal with.

Some years later, we were living in Fort Worth and heard Bob has passed away at age 38. He lived an amazing and productive life in the face of very difficult hills to climb! But Bob climbed them and made contributions to society, to family, to church, and to me.

How about the hills you’re trying to climb? Feeling a little sorry for yourself? It’s easy to do, isn’t it! And it even feels good, at least for a little while. Somehow God just doesn’t seem to be coming through for you with that picture of perfect Providence! You may have even started becoming very discouraged. How are you going to combat the “struggling uphill runaway blues” as a Christian?

Well, since we’re approaching Thanksgiving, and these “struggling uphill runaway blues” are really in season, we’d better talk some straight Christian turkey here!

God is in charge or He isn’t. Your view about this makes all the difference in the world in how you approach your next hill to climb.

God loves you and wants the best for you or he doesn’t. Your view about this colors all of your expectations and the way you view your outcomes.

All of us have problems to deal with. So when you you find the hill is steep and hard and you want to say, “Why me?” also ask the question “Why not me?” Who gave you the right to be exempt from the realities of life? Better yet, look at all the good things in your life and ask “Why me? Why would God bless me with so much?”

Take stock of your life. Then and ask yourself, “What work has God given me to do here?” and get started doing it.

Your talents, your abilities, the dawn of each new day, the breath you take, the Bible you read, the lips you move to word each prayer, your precious family, your friends, and thousands of other things all matter very much to God and those around you. Feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t help you or anyone else. It only makes the hill steeper and the climb harder.

Yes, this is the Thanksgiving season. It will quickly become the pre-game warm up for Christmas. But forget Christmas and all those things you’d like to get. Take a minute, find a pencil, and write down all you are thankful for. Be wild and free. List all the little things you take for granted, from being able to draw a breath to being able to have socks on your feet. Even thank God for the hills you have to climb. Each of these hills is a reminder of the God who longs to bless you and bring you to a better place. He doesn’t want to just leave you confined to a wheel chair in a busy crowded place where we’re trapped and can’t get around.

I’m thankful for Bob. I’m thankful for what he taught me about confining people to a box made of wrong conceptions and limiting them to options only I’ve considered. I’m thankful for God and His Word. I’m thankful for you reading to this point because you want to climb your hills. I’m thankful for the words God has given us to share. But most of all, I’m thankful for the hills I have to climb that remind me I’m not where I want to be yet. But, I’m getting there, and soon I’ll be over the top of my last hill and will join Bob in the home of no limitations!