9.19.2008

Shining Darkness

"Life is like hiking up a mountain." There he was: off and away on one of those talks again.

"And what's drives us up, past the scheming rocks and lurking snakes, is the view of the sunset at the top." The man from my church thoughtfully finished his grand sentence.

Yes, the notion did sound beautiful, but the idea didn't seem to sink in. I mean, what happens after we reach the mountaintop? Do we die from the magnificence? I doubt. For we climb up in life to go back down, and we go down to climb up once more. Life's like that - filled with twists & curves, ups & downs.

So really it is not that we have one mountain - or one sunset in our lives - it is that we have many mountains to climb, and numerous sunsets to see. In other words, things may bring us down in life from our mountain top, but we always go back up to glimpse another setting sun. Because it's worth it - it's worth getting through the tight spots to get to the amazing ones. Though sometimes we wonder why couldn't we just stay up there on the high mountain forever.

But if we could, would we? For the bottoms of our mountains - the hard parts of life - make us realize how great the sunset really is. Without evil, we wouldn't fully recognize the good. Without the sins, we couldn't see the mercy. Without hate, we couldn't understand the greatness of love.

For example, the grass is green, right? Well of course, I mean everyone knows that. But, what if it wasn't green? What if the grass was gray all year around except for one week - one chance - to be green? We would definitely notice that the grass was green for that one week - for one week we would marvel at it's color. But because the grass isn't gray, we hardly notice the luscious green stalks crying out the delicate dew drops. It's just a fact to us usually, and nothing more.

And so, without knowing what it's like at the bottom of a mountain, we would never be able to feel the complete beauty of the radiant setting sun on mountaintop. Without the downs in life, we would never recognize the ups - never fully know the beauty. So while we may despise our downfalls and heartbreaks, they in fact show us realize how great life can be.

(would love to hear your comments!)
{thanks to my followers :) }

9 comments:

Glass Mannequin said...

I heard a similar argument in a different way.

What is the purpose of law? What is good? What is bad? If there were no laws, could there be good and evil in the world?

If there is no law, there is no evil. If there is no evil, there is no good. If there is no distinction between good and evil, there is no distinction between people and animals.

The argument stated that our conscience, the ability to choose right or wrong defines us as humans and having a soul. There are profound religious connotations to this, but surprisingly, the author of the book I got this from was an existentialist atheist.

Love you.
Glass

Romans 12:2 said...

Nice post! I've thought about the same things.

ashlea014 said...

great post.

? said...

It just shows how black the darkness around us really is.

Bronte said...

thats cool :)
it was just sorta wondering.
hehe same with me though.
one time i wrote in the back of a ws that i was supposed to turn in during history class...
but its all good :)
i like ur comments too!
its deffinately funn!
Bronte

DreamMatrix said...

Yin and Yang...absolutely! Beautiful post, thank you!

Have you ever seen the view from up a tree?

Anonymous said...

Great Post!

The "Sunsets" in life really are what get you through the climbs.

-Amy

PhilO♥ said...

Heya ! i just came across your blog ! it's really nice...nice post!

Unknown said...

Sounds good, I like the amount of thought you put into it...

I've heard similar things like
"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going"
and how everything is about the journey and less of the destination.

We'll all end up dead, it's all our destination, so it's up to us, to take in the journey, the good and bad.