After much over landing from Niger, through Benin we ended up in Togo for an unanticipated period of time. We have just come out of a significant time of the year where we stopped, in Egypt, to look back on the journey with a reflective and teachable attitude. The environment and beauty of the Red Sea and the rugged barren desert mountains in Egypt were definitely the most appropriate context in which to rest and review the first half of our journey. In addition to resting and looking back, we were greatly spoiled by God through generous people, the company of wise guests and the beauty of His Creation.
It is impossible to share our experience of Egypt without taking too much of your time. I would however love to use this blog as an opportunity to share with you the hope that inspires us to ‘sign up’ for a journey such as this one.& nbsp; I would love to share with you the gift of grace that awakens a deep sense of compassion for the people we meet in our travels.
While we were in Egypt, we climbed to the top of Mount Sinai. It was not the highest mountain I have ever climbed but it was by far the most difficult considering it is a desert mountain. I was ready to quit before the first hour lapsed. With the help of our guide and the people around me I persevered. Every break was so welcome. During our breaks, I would find a comfortable flat piece of rock to lie on for a very short but refreshing power nap. Even at these points, before reaching the summit, the view was spectacular. The gentle voice of the guide urging us to carry on reminded me that we were not yet at the top of the mountain. I kept thinking, ‘surely this is good enough, do we really have to climb all the way to the top to get the full experience of hiking up Mount Sinai?’ It was through this experience that I began to think about man’s futile attempts to attain Holiness or reach God in his own strength. As we were climbing, I would voice negative comments such as, ‘this climb is eternally painful!’ or ‘the top seems to be getting higher and higher the more we climb up. We had gone too far to turn back and I was also too tired and unfit to carry on so I was really just satisfied with camping somewhere on the way up. In addition to the physical pressure of climbing the rugged steep mountain was the pressure of making it to the top before sunset. And I thought, ‘Surely, I have seen and will still see many beautiful sunsets in my lifetime, do I really have to pay such an unaffordable price to see a glorious sunset at the top of Mount Sinai?’
This experience reminded me of the story of what I used to be and even the lives of some of the people we read about in the Bible. After the fall of man, through disobedience in the Garden of Eden, life becomes an endless and lifeless battle of trying to restore broken fellowship with God, our Creator. We search, sometimes unknowingly, for peace that can only be found in being made right with the One who created us. Many of us are swept into this battle without even knowing or understanding its purpose. We march aimlessly with wounded limbs and bloody army clothes hoping to find victory. The comfortable false sense of victory along the way leads us to blindly worship false gods that we don’t always recognise. Our hunger for victory remains unmet and we keep marching until we walk into our graves, not knowing which of the ‘unknown worlds’ our souls will find the peace we pursue throughout our lives here on earth.
Our own effort and attempt to restore our fellowship with God leads us to a place of desperation and despair. This was the theme of my life until I realised my incapability to earn God’s approval and acceptance. I experienced victory when I heard the best news ever: Jesus has paid the price, which I try to pay from my empty pocket, for reconciliation with my Creator....who loves me with unconditional love. This is grace, the gift of salvation where Jesus says, ‘You do not need to try to reach the unattainable summit of being made right with God. I have taken upon myself the judgment of your fall, which you could never do in your own strength, so that you can enter into a personal relationship with God the Father, your Creator’.
To my ears, this is the sound of victory and it sounds very different from ‘do everything you can to find your way to God, you may or may not make it’.