“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” (Psalm 24:3-6, ESV)

I would like to think my spiritual journey could accurately be depicted as a steady climb—pilgrim’s progress, pressing on, ever upward. Sadly, mine could more honestly be depicted as tempestuous noir sky disrupted by disparate sporadic flashes of light against the auditory backdrop of distant thunder, threatening to overpower everything within earshot. Chalk it up to poor choices or weak will, but my own timeline is less a straight line slanted upward and more like an EKG with high peaks and low valleys, with zig zags in between. Longingly, I have read accounts of individuals who climbed a mountain in their dreams, and that the dream represented confronting the challenges and obstacles that life presents. Each step symbolized a journey toward resilience building, teaching the importance of challenge acceptance.

While I admit to struggling with and often failing to gain such self-awareness and spiritual enlightenment during most of my ill-fated plummets, I have learned that overcoming obstacles isn’t primarily about reaching the summit; it’s about embracing and growing from the struggle along the way. Facing head-on our respective trials, you and I discover strength and adaptability we didn’t know was ours, realizing that every setback can be a stepping stone to strength and resilience. Self-discovery should lead to divine dependence. The best possible news is that we need not face our troubles alone; our Creator never intended victory to be won by pulling ourselves up by proverbial bootstraps, manning up, so-to-speak. We overcome by acknowledging inadequacy and crying out in desperate need for divine guidance and fortitude. We were designed for dependence—we need Him every moment of every day, and life surges forward when we discover and delight in His desire to sustain and empower us so that we never lose sight that we are His and He is everything to us.