"Mountaintop Experiences" and Discipleship

I just came back from two great experiences – the India Mission Trip and our English Family Church Camp. Both were exhilarating.

There are two great temptations after a spiritual ‘mountaintop’ experience.

One temptation is to try to hang on to them – to build ‘monuments’ out of them. We do so by re-visiting these episodes again and again – to dwell on the ‘good old days’. We become spiritual ‘cowboys’ who love gazing into the open space, reminiscing about how God ‘used to’ work among us.

Another temptation is to try to run after spiritual experiences. Like an addict running after the next dose, we seek to recreate and pump up for the next high. In so doing, our faith is like a ‘roller-coaster’ ride decided by our feeling spiritually charged or not.

Peter, John and James had such an encounter – they witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus and saw two great ancestors of faith, Elijah and Moses. What was their response? “Put up three shelters,” Peter suggested. The narration said, ‘(He did not know what he was saying.)’ and God rebuked them,

"This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." (Luke 9:35)

What happened after is more important than what happened on the mountaintop.
Would we become effective workers for Him or will we be labelled as part of the ‘unbelieving and perverse’ generation even after the experience? (Luke 9:41)

Listen and follow the Lord of our experiences – not the experiences per se.