A Mountain Theology

This is my new year’s confession: I have an escapist streak in me.  Sometimes when illness and divisions and angry pundits surround my thoughts, I try to get away to the mountains.  When I walk along the calm waters by the leisurely cattle with the white Sierra looming above, my blood pressure lowers.  Or I get into a rhythm on the ski slopes with the soft snow swishing by me, one turn after another, and all my problems trail far behind me.  The mountains provide beauty and solace, and they meet my itch for adventure.  Many of us on the Eastside find great joy in our rich mountain surroundings.  But how does a love of the mountains translate into the life of faith?

For some, a transcendent enjoyment of the outdoors replaces the life of faith.  Worship gives way to recreation, and the love of sunsets, rivers and Sierra summits rises above a love of God.  But I believe faith can actually deepen and extend our enjoyment of the mountains.  They don’t have to be in competition with one another.  If the mountains are our first love, then one day they will be torn from us.  We will get too old to enjoy them, or eventually, we will pass away.  We can hold on to our memories of the mountains, but there is the lingering sense of loss that we aren’t able to enjoy them the way we once did.

The good news that is revealed to us in the bible says that the wonderful piece of art, called the universe, has a signature at the bottom of it.  A person made all this.  And the enjoyment of this natural world can be an avenue to know and enjoy the artist responsible for it.  Imagine the person that could invent the crags and the conifers, who could think up aspenglow and the baby fawn, who is powerful enough to give the fletcher its flight and the sunset its color.  Delighting in these things deeply can help us learn to love the creator, just like savoring a good book can help us learn to appreciate its author.

If we utilize our love of the mountains to help us make God our first love, then we are protected from losing the joy of the outdoors.  You see, we will still grow old, and one day die, but even when we can’t explore the trails like we once could, each day we are getting closer to the Maker of the mountains forever.  If we have learned to love Him, one day we will be with Him, and you can bet that our ability to explore will be returned to us, free from achy knees and diminished eyes.  And our enjoyment will be lifted to the next level because we will enjoy the mountains with their Creator by our side.  It will be like going to Disneyland with Walt Disney as your tour guide.

So here is my theology of the mountains:  We live in a uniquely beautiful place, let yourself love the mountains that surround us.  And let them lead you to love their Creator.  If you do, one day you will enjoy them even more than you ever did in this life.  Now that is something to look forward to in the new year.
​
Together in the Journey,
Fr. Cam Lemons