Father Lou Guntzelman in his book, The Country Called Life, tells of a man who came to his office. The man said, “You know, Father Lou, I have always thought that if you worked hard at handling life when you were younger, that things would eventually get better. To me life is like climbing a mountain. I’ve always had the expectation that by this time in my life I would have come to a plateau where the troubles of life leveled off. Now I am beginning to wonder if there is a plateau. The mountain just keeps going up, and I am getting so tired of climbing.” Father Lou inquired, “As a mountain climber what are your options?” “Well,” he said, “I guess I could just sit still and cry and wait for someone else to help me, or I could slide down to the bottom and stop climbing. And then again I could give up and jump off the mountain and end all the climbing or I suppose I could just keep climbing.” Father Lou asked, “And what benefits do you get if you keep climbing?” The man thought, and then smiled and said, “When you keep climbing the view gets better.” When hard things happen, you don’t just sit and die. You don’t just sit and have a pity party. When life gets hard you keep climbing. A person of faith who steps out on the word of God knows that when you keep climbing the view gets better.
– Dr. Tim Thompson