From the Home Place

October 22, 2025

Ever since I was just a short-legged feller, I have loved being in the mountains. That is, until I had to climb one to get to a certain destination. Back in the early 70’s my brother and I were both blessed to harvest two cow elk, right smack on top of a mountain. Because we could each carry only one quarter of the meat at a time, we had to make three more trips up that mountain to get the meat safely into the back of the pickup. We were not in bear country, so all we had to do was to get the meat down the mountain. The temperature was below freezing and there was about 18″ of snow on the ground where the pickup was parked, but up on top, the snow was way over our knees.

To make things even worse, we not only had to carry a quarter of elk on our shoulder, while tromping through a couple of feet of snow, but once we were about halfway down the mountain where the elk were, we then had to climb up another really big mountain before descending to the pickup. Needless to say, it was a very long, difficult two-day job.

Spiritual application: We have all been reminded of Jesus’ words telling us that if we had “faith the size of a mustard seed,” we could move mountains.. I’m quite sure that Jesus wasn’t talking of throwing a literal mountain into the sea, they seem to be really well rooted right where God put them.. I think that Jesus was telling us that if we have even small faith, we can deal with any obstacle, even a big one.

On our elk hunt, we both could have handled climbing one mountain to get to our elk, but having to climb another one, with a hundred pounds of meat on our backs, in the snow, was extremely difficult! But sometimes, we just have to climb the mountain, even if it’s uphill both ways, in the snow.

So, what obstacle is in your path today? Your mountain may be medical, relational or spiritual. Whatever it is, trusting Jesus will help you deal with it. My experience is that faith in Jesus doesn’t remove the obstacle, but faith in Jesus makes it possible to deal with said obstacle in a proper manner.

There’s an old Dutch saying that states, “God doesn’t take us out of the storm, but He does walk with us through the storm.” Remember, the storm was still raging when Jesus walked out, took Peter by the hand and pulled him to safety. Pete taught us that faith is keeping our eyes on Jesus, not on the storm.

Whatever obstacle you may face today, take the hand of Jesus and deal with it. Oh by the way, it usually helps to trust fully in Jesus before you start to sink.

Trusting Jesus with you, Neal