Someone Else’s Mountain
Yesterday, grief walked into my classroom. Her mom died several months ago, and she knew my dad had recently passed away. She was having one of those low days where grief consumes you for no apparent reason, and she just wanted someone to talk to who understood. And I did. So, we sat in my classroom together for a while, talking about our parents and crying those heavy tears of mourning. And then we hugged and she left. I prayed for her all day.
In my small group, we have been studying the prayer of a man named Jabez. He appears only once in the Bible, in the book of 1 Chronicles. He is in the middle of a list of names that spans for four chapters. Endless names that mean nothing to me, but then there is this one prayer in the midst that has molded and shaped my prayer life over the past few weeks. Jabez prays, “Oh, that you would bless and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” (1 Chronicles, 4: 10)
These past two weeks, our small group has focused on the part of the prayer that says, “enlarge my territory.” We’ve thought about what our territories might be, and how we could enlarge them for God. We finally came to the consensus that our territory would be anywhere our lives intersected with others. Where we connect with people, that is our territory. And so we have pondered what our lives would look like if every interaction we had with someone was an act of service to God. That thought is not a little bit intimidating to me.
Last week in the devotional book that goes along with our study of Jabez’s prayer, there was a discussion question that said, “Lord, what mountain do you want me to ask for in your name?” And then I became intimidated again. Surely, I could not name mountains for God. Surely, I could not even climb mountains for God. And even if I could, did I really want to take on a mountain right now? I’ve got lesson planning and kids to raise and dinners to cook and football games to watch. Mountain moving isn’t exactly on my to do list at the moment.
But what if the mountains that God asks me to move are not my own? What if through enlarging my territory, I am able to help someone else move their mountain? Or maybe climb their mountain? Or even just sit with them in the valley of their mountain for a while?
Grief walks into my classroom sometimes. So does anger and frustration. Disappointment walks into my classroom. Joy and self doubt. Courage and uncertainty. Love, humility, abuse, divorce, faith, worry, guilt, happiness, mental disorders, friendship, cancer, want, need, defeat, unrealistic expectations, hunger, thirst, homelessness, autism, laughter, deafness, blindness, self confidence, disabilities, kindness, broken hearts, pregnancy, and even death.
The people who enter my classroom are moving and climbing all kinds of mountains in their lives. And it’s not just in my classroom. All around me, everyone I encounter is facing some sort of mountain. Mountains that I can’t even imagine. And perhaps God isn’t calling me to take on those mountains for myself. Maybe he is asking me to enlarge my territory by traveling to those mountains that belong to others and to be with them, encourage them, pray for them as they face those mountains themselves.
The funny thing is that when I first started thinking about these mountains that others face in their own lives, I began to see mountains everywhere. I prayed for God to enlarge my territory, and he has shown me mountain range after mountain range. Lives that go on living with the strength of the human race even when they carry these monumental struggles and challenges with them, and I am in awe. If I can stand beside someone while they face their mountain – give a hug, shed a tear, send a text, mail a card, share a kind word – what an honor for me. What a gift for me. To be allowed, even for a moment, stand on these mountains with someone else, surely I have been blessed.
“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” (1 Kings, 19:11)
20 Comments
Lindsay (Young Married Mom)
Beautiful. Praying for you to have the grace and courage to be there for others with your whole self today–and for me to learn this too!
Rebecca @ The Reluctant Housewife
that’s the very best interpretation of the Prayer of Jabez that I’ve ever heard! I remember during a particularly devastating season in my life, how I could walk into a room and it was almost like I could instantly see the other people in the room who’d walked through the same thing that I was walking through. It was from my brokenness that summer that I ministered to those around me. Now, years later, when I’m asked to pray for somebody going through a crazy dark season, I’m praying from my scar. It’s different than any other type of praying for people that I do, because I’ve walked that road. Keep enlarging your territory and climbing those mountains!
Leslie
Great words to live by! This made me pause and see things around me very differently. I think I’ll take this and create a discussion around it for devotions at our Christian Education committee meeting on Monday. We all could use some reflecting such as this. I’d never thought specifically about expanding my territories in this way, but always try to be there for people who are in need of support and prayer. Thanks for the reminder and new viewpoint.
Jesse
What a beautiful post, and very timely for me. I began working toward a Master’s in Pastoral Counseling this year and this illustrates a large part of how I strive to be with others, and how I hope to counsel others in the future. It resonated so strongly that I sent the link to one of my professors in the program. By the way, I’ve been reading since two blog re-designs ago and I’m so grateful to you for sharing your life with us. Thank you!
Joanne
Beautiful post. I always love how eloquently you put things and the posts are usually relatable to something going on in my life at the same time. Thank you for sharing.
Michelle
What a wonderful interpretation of Jabez! I grew up with religion being forced down my throat as a “we’re going because we have to” variety but with no explanation or background as to why we should follow God’s word or the different ways in how we can do so. So as an adult with a young family, I am doing my best to get us involved with a church and to develop and strengthen my own faith.
Your notes on Jabez made me think: so many times when people come to us with their problems, we tend to feel that in order to help them, we need to carry them over their mountain (my husband is sooooo guilty of this and then he gets stressed out and resentful because he feels like he’s failed them by not being able to fix their problems). What we don’t often realize is that by being there for them, we’re helping them over their mountain simply by being supportive.
This is really such a wonderful message- thank you!
Lindsay
Beautiful Katie! Thanks for sharing this. 🙂
Sara
Just what I needed to hear this morning – sending you hugs and prayers from afar!
farrar
Thank You for this post. I am struggling with a mountain right now that feels like it may overwhelm me, but until this post I couldn’t put it into perspective in my mind that it is a mountain. With prayer, faith, and determination,I am hoping that I can find that I can climb it and once on the other side realize that it was just a little mountain not the bottomless pit it feels like right now.
Alaina
Beautiful – thank you for sharing!
Melanie L.
Love this… I needed to read this today!! Thanks so much.
Melissa
Thank you so much for sharing this Katie. I love when you write about your faith and I can relate so much to this post. I am a teacher as well and loved how you acknowledge the struggles of those in our classes.
Beanie, Gracie & Tillman's Nana
So beautifully written. It reminded me of the quote I have tried to live by…”Be kind. For everyone you meet is carrying a heavy load.”
jamie
absolutely beautiful, katie! you are always such a wonderful example and inspiration to me. always.
Christy
Everyone has their own mountain to climb and burden to bare. We all must manage the cards we’re dealt in the best way we know how.
Kristin B
Amen, Katie. Thank you for being one of “those” teachers who goes beyond just the classroom.
Shana
Thank you so much for this encouraging and uplifting message! You are so right! Hubby and I got similar messages from God this past week! It’s amazing how once you start asking for mountains in the name of God and for the strength through God to overcome…suddenly the mountains don’t seem so daunting!
Tricia Kevern
Amazing!
C
Thank you. Thank you for summing up such a critical part if our job. <3
Cassie
Very nicely written! It is crazy how many people are struggling around us that we don’t even know sometimes. I had been praying for awhile for God to allow me to be a servant. Not a volunteer (we choose when to do it) but a servant (meet the needs of others not according to our schedule but their needs.) And my prayers were answered.
In one week I found out a good friend was going through fertility and the egg did not take, another friend came to me with advice because she found out her husband cheated on her, and a co worker 4 year old son was in the hospital for cancer treatment. Let me tell you what- there was a lot of serving that week and the week after. It was hard. It was. I was not even the one going through it. But it was hard for me and it was even harder for them. I was so thankful that God allowed me to serve them. That I hopefully helped carry the burden. But most of all hopefully I shined a light for Jesus!
Continue to walk those mountains with others!