Christian Living

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday January 24, 2008

Do you ever get overwhelmed with the mountain in front of you? Mountains can be very tough obstacles and on occasion you can walk around the mountain, climb over the mountain or stick your thumb in your mouth, turn around and spend a considerable amount of the rest of your days moaning about the unfairness of life.

Mountains come in many shapes and sizes. Mt. Everest was considered the grandfather of them all, until Sir Edmund Hillary conquered it with the help of his Sherpa guide. Now patients in nursing homes take a trek up the hill. Big problems are typed as mountains, triggering such phrases as "How can we ever climb this financial mountain?" The stock market plunge this week caused a worldwide crisis and the gurus from many nations assured all of us that everything will be alright, just as long as we keep spending our bucks, we will scale this economic precipice.

In any profession you will discover the "would have, could have been" family. If they had lived a little earlier, or just a few years later, or if at least one parent had enough sense to come in out of the rain, and the most ancient, "It it this woman you gave to me, God." Many men use this one. An aside on this is the case of a very successful man and his wife pulling into a gas station and lo and behold one of her old flames was tending to the trash cans along the pumps. The husband noted, that she was married to a very successful financier and just wondered what would have happened to her had she married the former beau who is now a trash tender at a gas station. The girl simply said, "I recall Robert well and had I married him I would now be married to the president! And you would be cleaning the restrooms."

Over the course of a decently long life I have noted about all of the excuses for failure and through keeping my eyes open I have been amazed at the people who have the same limitations as mentioned and yet they climb their mountain. A polio patient rises to the presidency. Many opine that several men who are mentally challenged have also risen to our highest office. A Mexican becomes treasurer of the United States. A quadriplegic operating from a special wheelchair becomes a speaker, writer and artist of world renown. How do you climb mountains in a wheelchair? Ask Joni Erickson Tada. Or Bob Wieland who gave both legs at the hip in Vietnam and then scooted across America, from the Pacific to New York harbor on his butt to raise awareness for the Vets. There are high mountains in life but one of many positive affirmations that I find helpful is simply, "With Christ I am tougher than the tough things of life." The affirmation is simple to say, and definitely true, but give it a try and find out how much you do NOT trust the Lord.

One of my favorite broadcasters of all time was Edward R. Murrow, I first noticed him on radio during WW11 but was too young to know much about him, except that when he was on I had better be quiet, or else, and later he was on TV and I was fascinated at the way he held his cigarette. I just knew he knew how to live. The young are foolish and the aged dumb. A man of Mr. Murrow's stature had to have uttered numerous statements worth quoting and today's fits right in with the importance of just going ahead and climbing the mountain in your path:

"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts."

Larry Lilly Copyright (C) 2008 Use with credit.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE