So they set out to build a
road. A road to pave the way.
To pave the way to places that had never been explored. They packed everything they could think of to
help them on their journey. It was going
to be epic.
They had no idea what was out there. So much ground to cover. So many challenges to encounter. Deserts
that threatened to lay them bare. Jungles that nearly swallowed them up. Trees to step around. Animals to run from.
Wide open spaces where it seemed like nothing could possibly grow. Thick tangled messes where it seemed like nothing could possibly pass.
And there were amazing
treasures to behold. Unobstructed
sunsets unlike anything they had ever seen.
Glittering rivers that held more bounty than they could believe. Amazing scenes that they could never forget.
So they made their way. To pave the way. The lot of them with their baggage. They hauled their equipment for making the
way. Day after day. And left a ribbon of road stretching out
behind them. That others could follow.
Until one day they came to a huge mountain.
It loomed over them. An immovable obstacle. And the Captain of the
group said, "This is unlike anything we have seen before, but we must pave
the way. We must go forward. We must go over."
So the men strapped their equipment to their
backs. They loaded their heavy baggage and headed up the mountain to pave
the way. But they could not move ahead. They lightened their
load. But they still made no
progress. It was one step forward and
two steps back. One of the crew said, "Captain, we are not equipped
to climb this mountain. We do not have the right tools. We do not
have the right experience."
And the Captain proclaimed, "We cannot go
over. But we cannot go back. We
must go around. Let us find a way around.”
So the group traveled east for days and days.
And the mountains got taller and taller. And there did not seem to
be a way around. One of the men said to the Captain, "This cannot be
the way. We must go back to where we started and try the other way."
So they retraced their steps to the place where
they had first met the obstacle and they tried the western route. More mountains. And endless chain of the same overwhelming obstacles met them at each step. They had
traveled for many days and nights when one of the men said, “Captain we have
gone so far and we have not made any progress. We have gone from east to
west and side to side. We have walked
for days and days but we have not gone forward. We have not paved the way.”
The Captain was defeated. He said, “This mountain cannot be conquered. Maybe this is the end of our journey. Maybe this is the place we are supposed to
be.”
And there was a tiny voice from the back of the
group that said, “Captain, there is another way.”
“What is this way? There does not seem to be another way.”
And a young man came forward
with a box that read TNT.
“Captain. This box
contains something amazing that will let us go through the mountain.” said the
young man.
And the company laughed.
“Boy, you have no experience!”
“Ha! What do you
know?”
“You have been nowhere.
Done nothing! This cannot
possibly be true.”
“Nobody goes through a mountain.”
And the young man said, “I assure you Captain. The contents of this box will allow us to go
through the mountain. It will take down parts of this mountain. It will be destructive and I cannot imagine
the perils that await us on the inside, but if we are careful,
and we learn as we go, we can make our way through to the other side.”
The Captain said, “Boy! We have had this box all long and you said
nothing?”
“Yessir. We did
not need this box the cross the river. We did not need this box to cross
the desert. The contents of this box would not have made the sunsets more
beautiful or helped us to gather the treasures along the way. We have not needed it yet. But we have had it all along. Yes. And we need it now.”
So they began to go through the mountain. It was slow.
And it was treacherous. The men
were terrified and the way was dark. But
it was forward. And that felt good,
because they had not been moving forward for a long time.
Before they knew it the first cracks of light
began to show. And the cracks became beams of sun and the beams became
spaces to gaze through. When they finally emerged from the other side of
the mountain they looked back on the immovable obstacle that had stalled their
progress for so long.
The Captain proclaimed, “That
is one huge mountain.”
And the young man said, “No sir, actually, now it
has become just one more thing we had to get through.”
What is your mountain?
What have you carried with
you all this way
that will make that mountain
just one more thing you’ve got to
get through?
