Rocky Places

Have you ever seen video of those animals - I think they're goats? - that just bound and leap around on the rocky sides of mountains? That just prance around like there's nothing going on, even though one wrong step could send them tumbling over the side? That don't seem to be phased at all when those rocks start to crumble and slide under their feet? They're so graceful, in the most ungraceful places.

What if I told you that you are a mountain goat? 

A lot of us spend our lives just trying to manage our lives. We're sucked in by the hard places, mesmerized by the rocks. We can't stop looking at where we're stepping because it seems so dangerous, so precarious, so difficult to live the kinds of lives that we're living. 

And listen, we've all got our challenges. Whatever it is. For some, it's financial. For others, it's physical. Still others have relational struggles. We've all got our battles to fight, and most of us feel like we're falling. The rocks are big, but they're fragile. The dust is crumbling under our feet. The side of this mountain is starting to tumble, just as we think we've finally got hold on it. Just when we think maybe we're finally going to get there. 

Can I let you in on a little secret? It's not just your life that's like that. We're all living that life. 

Can I let you in on another little secret? There's not a person on the outside looking in who could walk your life the way that you are. Not one. If anyone, even those who think you're just stumbling around, could get a good look at the craggy terrain you're navigating, it wouldn't take long for you to begin looking to them just like one of those mountain goats. 

Yes, graceful. 

Go ahead. Laugh about that for a minute. It seems unfathomable, doesn't it? Here you are, stumbling and fumbling about as best you can, feeling the ground move beneath your feat, and I have the audacity to say you look graceful doing it. Ha! I know you feel anything but graceful. 

But this is the encouragement from Habakkuk. This is what God wants you to see. The prophet says that no matter what's going on in your life, God steadies your feet to walk in uneven places. Just like the mountain goat. God knows what your life is like, and He strengthens you to live it.

Regardless of what it feels like from the inside (and trust me, I know), if you ever saw video of yourself navigating your mountain - your rocky, sandy, crumbling, falling, struggling mountain - you'd see that you look downright graceful. 

By the grace of God.