Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill

“He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

He enables me to stand on the heights.”

Psalm 18:33

Putting a subdivision on the side of a long hill leading down to the Genesee River became the source of many an adventure for our group of young boys in the early 60’s. The main street, Chapel Hill, a steep half mile road leading down to the river flats, instantly became our favorite place to race homemade soapbox derby cars and bicycles throughout the summer. The only problem, other than Jimmy Gallagher breaking both wrists when his wooden car ran into the back of a real car, was the walk back up Chapel Hill; it was brutal, exhausting and unforgiving, not to mention the only way home.

The reality is that going uphill, building something, making progress in any area of life is always more difficult and requires more of an effort than the downward path. Here are just a few examples:

• The old oak tree in the woods behind our house was over a hundred years old, having grown from a seedling, but it was felled by the strong winds of a summer storm in a moment of time.
• A house takes months to build, the product of much material and many skilled workers, but a fire can destroy it in the matter of an hour.
• A man or a woman’s reputation is built over many years of walking in integrity and honesty, but one lapse in judgment, one indiscretion, can ruin it forever.
• Relationships are forged over time and trust takes time to develop but the best of relationships can be lost so quickly by a secret repeated or a confidence betrayed.

Cautions to think long about the ramifications of our choices, decisions, and actions have to be looked at in the light of the examples above. Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes after learning many hard lessons and seeing much loss and destruction in his personal life, wrote “one sinner destroys much good.” So often one thing, a word or an action, the product of frustration, anger, a misguided motive, or a selfish desire, can do such harm, harm that the Lord wants to keep each one of us from.

But the examples also come with a much needed encouragement to not be weary in the walk God has called you to, knowing that the best things in life take the longest to develop and require the uphill climb that Chapel Hill represents. Pine trees shoot up many times faster than the majestic oak but their roots are shallow and their uses limited. Casual relationships come easily but they can rarely be leaned on in a time of crisis the way that relationships forged over time can be. With that in mind then, let’s ask the Lord to give us “hind’s feet for high places”, that divine enabling that strengthens us for the journey that, at times, can be awful steep.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church