Inspirational Articles
by
Bonnie Wheat
Bonnie Wheat is a pastor's wife, author, and Christian counselor. A former teacher, Bonnie has a Ph.D. in psychology and Christian counseling. She is the author of "God Gives a Song: Walking with God through a Crisis." She has also written for several publications including "Mature Living," "Texas Baptist," "The Upper Room," and a Guidepost devotional series. Bonnie writes a weekly article for the church page of her local newspaper, "The Big Spring Herald." She and her husband, Dwayne, live in Big Spring, Texas where they minister at Berea Baptist Church.
You may contact her at:
101 Washington Blvd., Big Spring, TX 79720
Tel. 915-714-4306 • E-mail her at brwheat@suddenlink.net
A Hill Isn’t a Mountain until It Has to
Be Climbed
By Bonnie Wheat
I love mountains – real mountains – mountains that are belted by timberlines and wear snow caps all year long. When my husband, Dwayne, and I moved to Big Spring almost twenty years ago, I thought I knew all there was to know about mountains. Having spent seventeen years in the Pacific Northwest, we had explored several of the Cascade peaks and marveled at their majesty and beauty.
In our younger adult years, we tramped up and down the slopes of Mt. Saint Helens before the 1980 eruption. We tested our camping skills in a tent pitched on the chilly ground of the Ohanapecosh Glacier area of Mt. Rainier, the highest of the Cascade peaks. Through the years we chaperoned several youth ski trips to Mt. Hood where Dwayne amassed a repertoire of bus-driving tales. We slept on picnic tables and feed-trough bunk beds. We trudged up hills and tromped through knee-high snow for the thrill of speeding downhill on a tube sled.
A few days after our U-Haul truck jerked to a stop in Big Spring in 1989, I started hearing fellow teachers at my new school talk about something called Scenic Mountain. Having already scanned the skyline several times in search of a mountain, I ventured to ask where this Scenic Mountain was supposed to be. To my amusement, they pointed to a hill with some picnic tables near the hospital.
A year or so later, I tried walking up that little hill with some friends and was amazed that it was so difficult to climb. I learned a valuable lesson that day. We really can’t distinguish between a mountain and a hill until we have climbed the grade ourselves. What may seem like a hill may be a mountain to the one wearing the hiking boots.
The Scripture instructs us to have compassion for those who are struggling uphill: Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2 NASB). Perhaps we would be less critical of others if we realized that a hill is not a mountain until we have to climb it ourselves.
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