More Than Conquerors

     I conquered McGinnis Mountain. Five miles up to a 4,228 foot summit overlooking the monstrous Mendenhall Glacier. It was a beast, but I didn't let it beat me! Between my time in Colorado and Alaska, I've gotten the opportunity to hike a handful of mountains over the past couple of years; it's easily become one of my favorite outdoor ventures to take on when I have the chance. There's just something about standing at the foot of a mountain looking up to the summit and thinking to myself "I'm going to conquer this today!" After fighting my way up for a couple of hours trying to not think of how sore I'll be the next day, I get to the summit. I can look out over every direction and see all of the different chains of mountains stretching past the horizon. The phrase "on top of the world" takes on a whole new meaning at the summit. On top of the picturesque overload is the overwhelming sense of accomplishment -- knowing that I just conquered a freakin' mountain! I've yet to find many other things that quite match up with the experience that conquering a mountain offers.

     Coming down off of a mountain is the worst; tired and sore and hungry you start to daydream of escalators. Needless to say, there's a lot of time to think about the obscurities of life on the way down. The word that kept coming to mind in this time was 'conqueror' (see previous paragraph). I began to think of the mountains I've conquered, the hikes I've conquered, the skills I've conquered, the accomplishments I've conquered, the bachelor's degree I will have conquered in six months. By some measures, I would say (pridefully) that I am a conqueror. Then, amidst the escalator daydreams, my mind took a turn to reflect on the accomplishments that I've strived for for years and still haven't conquered; being the man that God has called me to be, finding freedom from the fleshly passions of this world, living out a Christ-like walk in all of my pursuits. No, I haven't completely and utterly failed at all of these, but there's still plenty of mountain to climb in those areas. I could confidently say that the countless hours that I've poured into this bachelor's degree has been far easier than some of the spiritual trials that I've faced in my life!

     A little bit further down the mountain, God reminded me of Romans 8:37. After writing extensively on the continuous war between the Spirit and the flesh that we face as followers of Christ, Paul writes "... in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Yea, I'm sufficient to conquer some of the simple trials in life, but as for those trials that I find myself insufficient to conquer, I am reminded of the promised Holy Spirit. Having died to myself and having been baptized into a new identity in Christ and received the Spirit, there is no separation from the love that Christ showed on the cross.

     So, yes, McGinnis Mountain was pretty spectacular and I really look forward to hiking the other summits that Juneau has to offer, but oh how much greater it will be to conquer the trials of this life through the love of Christ.