I want the top of the mountain. I believe at the bottom of my heart that God thought about each of our lives before the creation of the world. I believe he had a dream. In some cases…that dream has been severely shattered. In some cases…that dream is still very much alive. I don’t believe God likes the brokenness that he sees in this world. I believe he has every intention of fixing it in due time.

I want God’s dream for Chris Russo. I’m not proud of every decision I’ve ever made and I do have regrets but…that doesn’t stop me from pressing on. I love what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3. In verses 12-14 he says, Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

Paul wanted the top of the mountain. He wanted all that God had for him. That’s what I want. In this life it is so amazingly easy to settle. The winds kick up, the climb gets steep and you start to feel like you may not make it. You have to make more sacrifices than you originally thought and you find yourself changing. Things that were OK at 5,000 feet don’t work at 10,000. You have to adapt and make tougher decisions.

The only way you can press on is if there is inside of you an insatiable thirst for the top. You have to picture it. You have to thirst for it. You have to resolve that anything less is just simply not good enough. C.S. Lewis said, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

“Far too easily pleased.” This is so painfully true. It’s almost better to be in extreme pain than to be just comfortable enough. At least when you’re in pain, you recognize that things need to change. When you’re just comfortable enough, you can coast till the day you die.

So what about you? Do you want the top of the mountain? Do you want the dream that God had for you? The encouraging truth and the painful truth is that it is available to you. The only reason you might not experience it is because of your own resistance. Let that sink in. You’re not a victim. You can choose to let God move in your life. You can grab a hold of his dream for you. The ball is in your court…and it’s in mine.