Fr Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

Mountain top experiences are often accompanied by feelings of joy and bliss.

These amazing experiences help us to draw near to God’s presence.

These amazing experiences help us to feel God’s presence.

In my experience, this can come with a sense of clarity about where I am being called. A sense of vocational clarity is so wonderful!

AND!

The mountain top experience requires a long, plodding, journey to get there. It is work.

It also requires a substantial bit of attention.

When plodding up the mountain, the mundane routes, the boredom, the frustration, the exhaustion, the struggle can all cause our attention to slip to other things.

To easier things.

We see some of this in today’s reading from the Old Testament.

When the people saw the Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us…”

How quickly the Israelites slipped to that which is easy, and familiar; extravagant and exciting, just after bearing witness to the power of God which lead them safely out of Egypt.

The plodding, the waiting, the exhaustion of traipsing through the wilderness to where God is calling them is a hard thing to wait for.

It’s a hard thing to trust.

The plodding, the waiting, the exhaustion, the wading through the wilderness to wait upon God, to see and trust that God is calling us, is challenging.

But we are being called.

Always.

And we are being called, at times, to wait, to discern, to plod.

Faithfully, trusting, and avoiding those great and flashy idols which feel easier and more immediate.

May we be given the strength to wait and plod and trust in the good work of God in our lives, and avoid those flashy idols which seek to draw us from who and how God is calling us to be.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Alex