So this weekend I was part leading a camp in Malvern with a group of teenagers. It was a great weekend with lots of great moments and the normal teenage chaos. This generally ranges from evil methods of waking friends to cheeky snogs before bed. So not as chaotic as it could have been. After all, there were no riots or police vans involved.
On the Saturday, we took a 7 mile hike up the Malvern Hills. Now I’m no Bear Grylls and so sleeping cold and then climbing around was not my idea of a dream weekend. Though, I say Bear Grylls, there was no drinking animal urine and eating insects on my part. As for the young people, who knows?!
The hike was a slow start with a steep uphill climb. I stumbled up the hill desperately trying to put a face on that said, ‘I could beat Rebecca Adlington in a race up this hill any day’ – In reality, it was quite obvious that I, along with others, looked more like a salted slug with asthma.
Nonetheless we all climbed further than we expected of ourselves. Nothing beats standing on top of a mountain and looking out across the surrounding land. It”s often breath taking when you take a few moments to appreciate all that is there.
I heard a quote from Winston Churchill lately that said, “Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them”
I believe that to be true. Not just for those in a leadership but for all of us.
It’s amazing when people have mountaintop experiences of God. Perhaps they are miraculously healed, transformed in character or relieved from an addiction or pain. But for both those who have had these experiences and those who haven’t, living life with Jesus is not about having a continuous mountain top experience, it’s not about having a constant fix of miracles, it’s about the day to day, ordinary life in which Jesus shares with you.
Yes, life with Jesus IS
spectacular, it IS transforming and it IS an incredibly exciting adventure.
But it’s also an ordinary life, lived with and for an extra ordinary God. I am an ordinary person who knows and follows an extra ordinary God.
Jesus came to bring life in it’s fullness, life at it’s best but that doesn’t mean life on a high – It means life as a whole, a life with challenges and opportunities, a life with purpose, a life with ups and downs, a life of confusion and of wonder.
Perhaps this is a life you are keen to explore. Then approach God by asking him to live life with you.
You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.
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Life on Overflow 
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