Is it a mountain?  Really?  Yes, and it’s not just any mountain but an insurmountable mountain; a mountain full of cold, slippery, icy avalanche killing snow. I’ve ran into these mountains in my life.  Mountains that brought such heartache and pain; a physical, spiritual, & emotional pain so deep that you think your very life could and maybe should… end.

Every day I talk to people who are at the base of their very own mountain unable to manage or imagine they can survive much less conquer what lies before them. Finding it nearly impossible to believe the pain could or will ever lessen- wanting and sometimes trying to find a way to end their life.

Every day I strive to help people find hope and a reason to be willing to wake up tomorrow, to walk through their day and find that they did survive to wake up and then be willing to do it again… for just one more day.  I have noticed that each mountain has a name and often its name is death; death of a marriage, of a child, of a spouse,  and of a dream that will never be fulfilled.  For many who find this mountain climb impassible and impossible will try to hide their mountain view and pain with alcohol, drugs, food or choose to take their own life in the seemingly only way of healing and escape.

For those who are willing to trust me and the words I offer that God created them for a purpose they slowly begin to discover the mountain view is not so ominous or foreboding as it once was.  

Yes, the pain is real and though it remains a mountain to conquer hope begins to take root with the thoughts that “maybe I can live through this” and “maybe my life won’t and doesn’t… have to end”.

My mountains came at unexpected times – for who is truly prepared for the call that says your loved one is being flown by helicopter and may not survive leaving you with three young boys to parent and guide through the heartache and confusion.  Or the mountain of death that takes a brother or the day you embraced a little child for the last time watching him crying for you only to be taken away never to be seen again. These have been my mountains and yes there were many times I wanted to leave this earth and the pain that it held and it was only God who brought me safely over, through and around these mountains that I now can guide others to follow my path of healing and hope. It won’t be easy and it will be painful but it…is…so…worth it to press on, to be willing to wake up just one more day …and then just one more day…until the heartache isn’t quite so deep and the sun begins to feel a little warmer and maybe a little brighter and you begin to sense that there really is a purpose for your life.

Surprisingly, you wake up one day to look back and find that the mountain has found its way into your past; a mountain forever named for the true and authentic pain and loss you and I experienced but now a mountain conquered. I am blessed and honored to be in a place where I can connect daily with people who are at various places on their mountain experience and what a joy when they can join me in looking back at our mountains knowing they too are healing and finding purpose once again.