Runaway Bay where we ride is a community with rolling hills. No matter what direction I take from our driveway there are several hills to negotiate when I cycle, walk or jog. Yesterday was no exception.
I went for a long walk to give my knees a break from the pounding they received jogging the day before. Brenda bought me a fitbit this year. That device worn like a watch keeps track of my steps, mileage, calories burned as well as flight of stairs climbed in a given day.
The walk started with several hills in a row. Before long the perspiration flowed on that humid day. One step after another took me through the community over one hill after another. I am not sure where it started but my lower back began to ache and feet began to throb from walking. My calves started burned from all the hills.
I counted the steps up one long hill with three different tiers. 366 steps. All going up. With each step my breathing grew heavier, my shirt soaked with perspiration and my body wanted a break. One step after another I climbed that hill. Fatigue set in and all I could think about was getting back home and getting off my feet but, I knew I had a long way to go before getting back home.
I did a mental calculation of the rest of the route and knew on the last leg of the walk I would encounter the steepest and longest hill of all. I dreaded it. There were other smaller hills to climb before that one. That last hill weighed heavy on my mind. Walking up that last hill would require a herculean effort.
I rounded a corner and saw the street sign followed by the last hill. The grade starts up with a steep climb followed by a gradual long steady elevation to the end of the dead end road. I put my head down and started the uphill climb counting each step along the way. At 100 steps my calves started cramping. At 200 I dared not look up to the end of the road not wanting to see how far I had left. It turned out at 200 steps I was not even half way up that last hill. I do recall what I was thinking at 300 steps. It was a children's song. At 400 I could see the end of the road. At 466 I made it to the stop sign and the top. I overcame the last hill.
The rest of the walk home was either flat or downhill. When I walked into the house, after downing some water, all I waned to do was to get off my feet. I grabbed a beach towel and spread it on the living room floor under a ceiling fan and laid down.
Many of you face your own last hills. For some it is another day at work. The work is hard and long. Each day when your alarm goes off and you think about the time you will but in will be an uphill climb on the job. Athletes face a last hill during the end of an athletic competition. When their bodies are exhausted they have to push themselves over the top. Some last hills look more like a mountain of debt. Debt beyond your control. This debt is not made up new cars, houses, or stylish clothes. This debt came from a steady flow of medical expenses beyond your control. Looking at that mountain of debt is your last hill to get over.
We all face last hills in life. Challenges. Obstacles. Adversity. Last hills come when you are already exhausted. The mental battle of facing last hills is crucial. It is funny how mentally a last hill can seem more like a molehill when your mind is right. When you are focused on God, faith, perseverance , and resolve not to quit many last hills in the end do not seem like such a chore. When the mind only thinks about the pain, the difficulty, and quitting last hills can seem to go on forever.
The ultimate last hill will be death. I recall a conversation I had with a man dying of cancer. He assured me he had no fear of death. He had trusted Jesus for salvation decades earlier. He did admit the process of dying scared him. He did not want to lose his faith in the last hours of the last days. He did not. He finished strong. He climbed that last hill and made it home to Heaven.
I am not sure what last hills you are facing. That last 466 step hill on my walk yesterday serves to remind me last hills can be overcome through Jesus who strengthens us. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It is funny but you know one of the things I kept thinking about while climbing that last hill? A song from a children's cartoon where the Winter Warlock learned to walk. The chorus in that song repeats the phrase, "Put one foot in front of the other and soon you will be walking across the floor. Put one foot in front of the other and soon you will be walking out the door."
That is life on planet earth in a nutshell. We keep putting one foot in front f the other. We keep going to work. We keep cooking meals, washing dishes, mowing the lawn. We keep supporting our chilldren, and grandchildren. We keep paying bills, maintaining vehicles and homes. We keep exercising, worshipping, pushing through fatigue to get the job done. We keep dealing with setbacks, and coping with disappointments.
Each step of the way Jesus is the source of our strength.
Philippians 4:13 (NASB)
13 I
can do all things through Him who strengthens me. The word strengthen means to "empower or enable."
We all need that when facing the last hill of the day or the last hill of life. In those moments we lean more fully into Jesus and receive a supernatural infusion of intestinal fortitude we could never find on our own.
I know that last hill on my walk is not the last hill of my life. I see many more on the horizon. Yet I do not have to dread them. Through Jesus I will put one foot in front of the other and get to the top whether that means 466 steps, 4,066 steps, or 40,066 steps. He will empower and enable me to make it to the top. One day I will climb my last hill on planet earth and the journey home will not be to a house made with brick and mortar. That journey will conclude in the Celestial city. Hallelujah! I long for that day and welcome that last hill.