Tag Archives: mountain

Brake

j-r-practix-with-border-2

Brake: (n) a device for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle

Oblivion is the condition we find ourselves in just prior to the tragedy we refer to as “an accident.”

This was my situation many years ago when I was driving through the Sierra Mountains in California, completely enraptured in the scenery and infatuated with a gorgeous waterfall.Dictionary B

I had a car with a trailer attached to it. There’s nothing particularly unusual about that. But when you pull such a trailer, you require additional brakes placed on the rear, so that when you want to stop, it helps you instead of mocking you.

So having ascended a high peak, it was time to come down the other side. I remember thinking to myself, how fun this will be–just placing the car in neutral and coasting down the side of the cliff.

The immediate problem was that the trailer I was hauling was actually heavier than the car I was driving. As I was coasting down the mountain, I noticed I was picking up a little too much speed.

I tried to slow down by hitting the brakes. I quickly discovered that my brakes were no longer willing to brake.There was too much weight from the rear.

Faster and faster I careened, descending the precipice.

To my left were rock formations and to my right was the end of the road and a really big fall. Straight ahead were twisty roads which promised to send me into the rocks or over the edge.

I kept pumping the brakes, hoping they would at least consider a bit of grace to cover my stupidity.

To this day, short of divine intervention, I do not know how I finally got that trailer to slow down so I could pull off and stop.

There was a horrible smell of burnt rubber–and pee-pee in my pants.

Ever since then I have been a great believer in brakes, especially when they’re well taken care of … and you don’t ask them to move mountains.

 

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Blasphemy

Blasphemy: (n) the offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things

Dictionary B

Sometimes I allow my idealism to take over the steering wheel and drive me to places of hope.

Generally speaking, there is a car crash along the way.

It’s called “human behavior,” or perhaps, human opinion.

Many years ago I wrote a rock musical called Mountain, which was the Sermon on the Mount set to music. I put together a cast and a twenty-five-city tour.

I was so excited.

The musical had what I considered to be good tunes, choreography, humor and heart.

But my balloon quickly sprang a leak and my dreams began to descend to the Earth.

For you see, some of those who attended objected to the fact that dance was included, since surely Jehovah God only marches and never does the fox trot.

But the most comical attack came from an individual who insisted I had committed blasphemy because in one of the scenes, when Jesus was preparing to share his message, he pauses, miming brushing his teeth.

We thought it was cute. Matter of fact, one of the cast members said “adorable.”

But apparently, to this lady in the audience, it showed great disrespect to connote that the Savior might have experienced halitosis.

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Altitude

dictionary with letter A

Altitude: (n) the height of an object or point in relation to sea level or ground level

Whenever I drive up a mountain in my van, even though I can feel the strain on the engine, I am always grateful because of the perspective I gain by climbing higher.

I don’t want to become overly philosophical here in discussing things that normally can be registered on an altimeter, but there is something magnificent about increasing your vision by ascending.

It reminds me of a story in the Good Book of a chap named Zacchaeus. For the sake of the reader (and spell check) I will refer to him as Zack from this point on.

Zack was a short dude. When Jesus came to his town and Zack picked up on the energy of the crowd, he was unable to see what the source of the excitement was because of his…well, because of his lack of altitude.

So instead of bitching and complaining, Zack ran ahead of the crowd to get a better look, only realizing that his situation was not improved–only distanced. For when the crowd arrived he would still be too short to see.

So Zack did something really smart. He climbed up in a tree. He let his attitude increase his altitude. Or maybe better stated, he let his altitude rejuvenate his attitude. Because he did, Zack was able to visualize–and also increased his possibility of being seen–so much so that Jesus calls him down from the tree and spends the afternoon with him.

So what is the lesson?

If you want to see better, climb a little higher. It not only increases your own vision of life, but gives others a better chance … to envision you.