By Evonne Wimbush,
Fresh Harvest Christian Church
A lady in her wisdom years decided she was going to mark some items off her bucket list; one was to climb to the top of a small mountain she had admired since she was a child. She trained and prepared herself to physically make the climb. The day came and with the assurance of her trainer that she could make it, and her confidence in her training, she began to climb.
As she was climbing, the friction between the rope and the rocks caused it to fray and weaken in a spot within a few feet from the top.
Content and happy that there was ultimate success and no hindrances (so she thought), the climber didn’t notice the increasing tear in the rope. Getting closer and closer to the top, she excitedly said,” I am almost there.”
In the succeeding moment, the climber became aware of the situation and lost her concentration. She became fixated on the tear in the rope and lost hope of reaching the top. Surely, she resolved, this would be the day she died; she would never realize her dream of reaching the top of this mountain. Her confidence diminished, she looked down and wept. No longer was she content and at peace. No longer was she confident of succeeding. She was looking down and thinking the end was near. Amidst her tears and the pounding of her heart she faintly heard a voice saying, “Reach beyond the break!”
Being consumed by fear and despair, she assumed she was hallucinating. The voice yelled, “Reach beyond the break!” The climber was crying and panicking, and still the voice was yelling, “Reach beyond the break!”
Engulfed with doubt and paralyzed by fear the words of the voice were falling on deaf ears. Without missing a beat, the voice repeated the same words, “Reach beyond the break!” Finally, she composed herself and heard the words, “All you have to do is reach beyond the break.”
The climber looked towards the direction of the voice, but all she could see were the rays of the sun. Suddenly, the Greater (1 John 4:4) in her manifested. She humbled herself, closed her eyes and said these words, “Lord, you promised me that you would never leave me nor forsake me. You said with faith the size of a mustard seed, I can say to the mountains to move and they will (Matthew 17:20); I have faith. Forgive me for my moment of doubt and right now in YOUR name, I pray, give me the strength to reach beyond the break.”
With faith reaffirmed (Isaiah 41:10), she clearly heard (now more pronounced and emphatic), “Reach beyond the break!” With all her strength and believing God would take care of her (Psalm 46:1-3), she raised her left hand, reached over her right hand and successfully…. reached beyond the break in the rope. Then, she was able to complete the climb; she reached the top of the mountain.
At one time or another in our lives, we have a moment of break, a separation from something that we hold dear and consider essential to our existence. The break could be of the heart or relational (home, church, work, school, self-esteem). As is human nature we grovel, cry, become despondent, go into a depression, and even go to the extreme of blaming God. We take our focus off His assurances. We become so consumed by the circumstance that we lose sight of our destination; we trust the moment of adversity and not the eternity assured by His words. Sometimes we come to our senses and we make it. Sometimes we spend too much time trying to go around the break or we just give up and fall. If we remember the promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), we can find encouragement to reach beyond the break. While we may believe that life as we know it may cease because our best friend, our intimate loves, our sidekicks – one or all break away from us, it is not so. No matter what you may be going through today. No matter what you have done in your past. No matter whom you have hurt with word or deed or who has hurt you in like manner, reach beyond that break and move towards your destination.
Be encouraged today by the words of the hymnodist, Walter Stillman Martin
