Life Is A Journey

Imagine you meet a mountain climber about to start his ascent. He’s been training for this, he has all his equipment, and he’s excited. You walk over and say: “Why bother climbing? It’s so hard to go uphill. It’s 2025! Just take a helicopter to the top and come down. It’ll be so much easier!”

What do you think his response would be?

He would respond: “Are you crazy? The point isn’t just to reach the peak, but to reach the peak by climbing to the peak. The climb, the journey to the top, is the purpose.”

Not only that, but despite the fact that the climb is arduous and fraught with danger, the mountain climber actually enjoys the climb. And when he reaches the summit, he feels a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Not All Uphill Journeys Are Equal

You see, not all uphill journeys are equal. I remember walking uphill to shul and thinking to myself, “This is so difficult. I wish the way to shul was only downhill or at least flat.” Yet, when I went sledding and had to pull my sled up the hill time and time again, it didn’t bother me at all.

Why is that?

If you have a goal or a purpose to the climb, that’s what makes all the difference. I didn’t mind pulling my sled uphill because it was for a purpose, so that I can enjoy sledding down the slope. This goal outweighed the difficulty of trudging up the hill in the snow. But if you’re going snow tubing and you’re trudging up the hill despite the fact that there’s a lift to bring you up, you’re going to resent that. It will be torturous, because there is no longer a purpose in your uphill trek.

Life Is a Journey

Life is a journey. Very often there are uphill stretches. Sometimes for long distances. Sometimes the hill stretches before us like an insurmountable peak. But the climb is the point of this life. It’s why we were put in this world.

The more meaning we can attribute to this journey. The more of a goal and a purpose that we have. The more clarity we have. The easier it will be to sustain this journey.

Live Higher

Let’s try to live a little higher and work on finding meaning in the journey. Let’s focus on looking back at how far we’ve come and use that as chizuk, strength, to propel us onward and upward. Let’s try to conquer the mountains in our lives.

Instead of trying to move mountains, let’s try to climb them.