The early American landscape painters would often paint, in the background of their art, magnificent towering mountains. These beautiful mountains represented the power and majesty of God. Whatever the landscape, we are drawn to the great hope and protection found in God the Creator.
Mountains have also been seen as having a special place to the understanding of the spiritual life. Both Moses and Jesus had important events on the mountain. "And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou may teach them." (Exodus 24:12) "And after he (Jesus) had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. Immediately before choosing his twelve apostles." (Mark 6:46)
In Japan, Mount Fuji is very much understood as a spiritual mountain for the Japanese. Mount Taylor in New Mexico is seen as a sacred mountain to the Navajo Nation. In almost every nation, there are mountains that call for the spiritual part of our life to lift our eyes unto the hills. Some take pilgrimages up the mountain. There is a sense of being closer to God, not so much in physical distance but in spiritual awareness.
Mondays are the beginning of the week for secular life. Saturday and Sundays are marked as days of rest and worship. As some say, "we live for the weekends." And that leaves Monday as the culprit of ending our happy time. We are called back to our work, our labor, our schedules set by others. There is this feeling of beginning all over to make it to Friday.
And yet, Monday is a day that God has given to us. It is a day that all of God's promises hold true for us. The word Monday came from an earlier English word for Moon. The Moon is essential for the immigration of birds and the impact of the ocean tides. It is the work of our Mondays to guide us into a new week. Just as our spiritual life is to guide us, so are the Mondays that we face. It really becomes an opportunity to adjust our secular understanding of Monday to a spiritual awareness that every day is a good day in God's realm.
Mountain Monday is a simple way to express that God has made both the mountains and our Mondays for His glory and our good. It is just how we want to make the day. On a mountain or not, we are God's greatest love.
Bruce Sloan
