“…the real fight only begins when you’re away from the camp. Never relax so long as you’re in enemy territory. Never get drunk with freedom…for you never know who is lying in the bushes.”
This quote derives from The Auschwitz Escape, a historical
fiction book by Joel C. Rosenberg about the courageous escape of two prisoners
from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp* during World War II.
*To be abundantly clear up front, I am not comparing my own
first-world difficulties to the horrors and atrocities a prisoner of Auschwitz
experienced for years of their life. I am comparing my spiritual journey and
the experiences that come with it to any camp that isolates you from the
real world so you can gain experience in a particular area of your life that
the camp provides, promotes, or dictates. It is purely coincidental that the
quote comes from a book about the Holocaust.
One of the common phrases I heard in church circles growing
up, especially as summer youth group trips wrapped up and we were a short three
weeks away from the start of another school year, was “the spiritual high won’t
last forever”, “you will eventually come down from the mountaintop and back to
reality,” or “the hard part is not being on the spiritual high, but what you do
when you get back to the routine.”
It wasn’t just a warning to all of us young Christians
trying to understand our newfound faith or rediscover it in new ways, but
foreshadowing about the difficulties to come. I still remember those pep talks,
with 72 of preteens and young adults crammed in one room whose layout more
closely resembled a cheap motel’s Continental Breakfast space than a place to
gather large groups. The theme of the meeting was designed for worship, prayer,
and reflection, but most of the conversation stemmed around what to expect
after this “mountaintop high” ends and we’re faced with secular reality again.
For the entirety of these summer youth conferences, I recall
how invincible I felt because of the loads of inspiration I gobbled up like a starving child. There was no way I would fall victim to my old habits,
no way, and most importantly, nothing would stand between my strengthened
relationship with God. How could I? I am a new creation, and the emotions I felt on these
trips were evidence that no obstacle Satan threw my way would cause me to
crumble! I repented, I prayed harder than I’ve ever prayed before, and I memorized
worship songs declaring my commitment to the Lord while filling my notebook
with sermon notes from Francis Chan, so no worldly desire was strong enough to
overcome my bond with Jesus after this. On top of all of this, I had a testimony ready to share
with my church upon, my return from traveling out of state. Boy, was I naïve,
even if the experiences I had were authentic.
Don’t get me wrong, all of the spiritual things I did on
these trips did strengthen me spiritually and did prepare me for the “valleys”
of life, but it still didn’t adequately address the pressing question:
“What do we do after our supernatural experience is over and we’re thrown back
into the world full of people who don’t share the same revelations you did?”
When you go on these youth trips, you’re likely one of the 95% of the group who
shares the same core thoughts about God. When you reenter society, you become the minority who believes Christ is your Savior and best friend. Will the foundation from the youth conference inspiration I collected in my heart and mind be strong enough for the primetime fight I would endure in the world's boxing ring?
For me personally, these youth group experiences on the mountaintop
with God not only gave me steady doses of healthy community and shed more light
on who the Creator is, but it affirmed that my choice to pursue Him back was
the best choice I ever made in this life. They affirmed me enough to go
into the fight outside of the camp with more resources, relationships with
other believers, and a strengthened resolve to follow Christ faithfully. So, yes, I would say I did feel strongly that the mountaintop experiences did help me face the giants of the secular world. However, I couldn't face them alone.
With the right people in place, found within these camp experiences, life outside of the
four-walls of camp didn't feel like a nightmare or a path to inevitable spiritual destruction because the church community I found myself would enter that same real world as me. However, if I didn't fill my days outside of the camp with accountability and those who pour into my spiritual wellbeing, I would likely be swallowed up by how the world defines God, not how the Word defines Him.
While danger is found hiding in the thick brush waiting to
pounce on you, discipleship through accountability is walking through it with you, chopping through
the brush with a machete to expose the enemy who is lying there. The machete is
the Word of God, what He says about you, and how to respond to anything that
does not sound like the truth, and discipleship is the community you're a part of holding that
machete. It takes discipline, training, and consistent loyalty to seeking
wisdom in the midst of the distractions and lies of the world.
- You don't need God.
- There is no way God exists with all of this evil in the world.
- If God does exist, he's not a good God.
- Just do you. God will only restrict you from doing what you want.
- Why should you follow a God who hurts you?
- What's the point in being a Christian when you're doing just fine without him?
- You'll be happier doing what you want instead of following God and all of his rules
When I was a college student attending a university of less than 3,000 students and preparing for my final years of education before embarking on my new career as a classroom teacher, a common phrase I overheard was, “There is no better preparation for teaching than the experience itself.” In other words, to be a good teacher, you have to embrace the challenge of being the teacher in the classroom first. Despite having amazing, approachable professors who knew the education field well and cared, with deep conviction, about my present wellbeing and future success as a teacher, spending all of my time listening to their lectures, reading the assigned textbooks, taking quality notes, and even observing other elementary school teachers in their classroom were not going to give me the right kind of experience I needed than to call the classroom my own and run it the way I believe it needs to be run. I would never know what I was capable of if I got my degree in Elementary Education just to shelf it for the rest of my life without trying on the pants to see if they fit.
We can have powerful, supernatural experiences with God on the mountaintop, surrounded by other believers who encourage you in those experiences, and I would encourage that for anyone. You can never have too many godly mountaintop experiences, but you won't know where your faith stands until you step foot outside of the camp and into the world around you. Oswald Chambers once wrote, "We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life- those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength."
Throughout the years, I have personally enjoyed seeing victory over these enemies because I have engaged godly council not just when I’m on the mountaintop high, but when I’m in the valley, searching for answers that are already in front of me. In the book of James, we are warned that a man who does not do what the Word says is like a man who looks in the mirror but forget what he looks like when he leaves; a part from the Word, we lose our identity in the things the world tries to satisfy us with. Without discipleship in the valley, we are more likely to be that man who forgets his identity. We spend so much time reveling in our freedom that we lose focus of the fact we’re still in enemy territory - in the valley; the valley requires you to be armed with accountability and the Word of God; without it, it’ll swallow you whole.
When we're on the mountain, we must consider why we're there: to grab onto the inspiration that comes from the Lord in order to take it to the valley when we or our community needs it. To relax in enemy territory means to forget what the mountaintop is for and why the valley exists. Though there is nothing wrong in anticipating the mountaintop, the test comes when we enter the valley after the mountaintop experience has concluded.
We should come down from that mountain with inspiration and use it in the valley to prove our stamina and strength. But we need discipleship and accountability to know when and how to use it in the darkest of times. We can be a light in a dark world that needs Jesus by how we approach both the valley and the mountain with purpose, conviction, and the community that reminds us of our identity and the inspiration we found in Christ.
What will you do with the mountaintop experience?
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