Many of us can remember moments that can only be described as mountain top experiences. In comparison, ordinary life seems so mundane, and we wish we knew how to manufacture whatever it is that would make us feel that way again. Henry Drummond, the Scottish theologian, got it right when he said, ‘God does not make the mountains in order to be inhabited and God does not make the mountain tops for us to live on. We only ascend to the heights to catch a broader vision of the earth below. But we don’t tarry there. The streams begin in the uplands, but these streams descend quickly to gladden the valleys below.’
So it is in our spiritual life. The real test of spiritual vitality is not how good we felt when we were on a high, but how well we integrate it to the reality of life in the valley.