The Mountain Within

The Mountain Within

(Matthew 17: 20-21)

Introduction:

While Linda and I were working at the Baptist Children Home, decades ago, they made a documentary film called “The Mountain Within.”. It was on an old 35mm. reel. In fact, some of you old timers may have seen the movie. It was shown in churches all over North Carolina If you knew where to look, you could have seen Linda, me, Jeff, and Julian, our two sons, in the movie, for about two seconds.

They called in no less than Andy Griffith to narrate the movie. In the prologue Andy referred to Pilot Mountain. Andy said that when you leave Winston Salem and start up Highway 52 toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, long before you reach the mountains and the Parkway, you come to one single mountain known as Pilot Mountain. All of us here in Piedmont North Carolina are familiar with this mountain. Andy says it reminds him of a giant fist that has protruded itself up out of the Piedmont. It’s like a mountain where no mountain should be.

Then he makes his application. The problems in theses children lives that necessitate them being taken from their families and placed in the care of our Baptist Children’s home are like mountains where no mountains should be. Now, just relax I’m not going to give you a lecture on the Baptist Children’s Home, although I am well qualified. That’s where I got this beautiful gray hair.

All of us, if you think about it, know what Andy had reference to. Each of us has our mountains where no mountains really should be. The mountain for these children was a broken family relationship. My mountain was being born with a physical handicap. I don’t know why they call it a handicap. It’s not been that handy to me. Well, except when I want to get out of doing something. Don’t feel sorry for Jesse. I do almost anything I really want to do. I just use this handicap to get out of things I don’t want to do to start with, like washing dishes etc. Your mountain may not be as visible as theirs or mine, but I say again, each of us has our mountains, problems, where no mountains should be.

The success or failure of life depends to a very large degree on how we deal with these mountains. I want to talk with you about three different ways people deal with their mountains.

1. Some people just pretend the mountains are not there.

Have you ever tried to talk to someone that you knew had a problem, and they answered you something like, what problem, I don’t have a problem? It’s their problem not mine. A lot of people want to blame others for their problems. They like to pretend their mountain is not there.

That’s like going with me up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am a parkway buff. Everyone goes to beach on vacation, we go to the mountains and have them to ourselves. No, it doesn’t quite work that way. Anyway, we go up there, and I say to you look at all these beautiful mountains, and you saying what mountains? I don’t see any mountains.

Remember I shared with you, that after I finally got started in the first grade, I forgot for a while that I was handicapped. Folks I’m not joking. I got to laughing and having a big time with my new friends and forgot all about being handicapped. Then they started that football team. Right there on that hot dusty practice field, I had to face the fact that I had a mountain.

Folks, you can pretend for a while, but sooner are later you must come back and deal with your mountains. People try all kinds of thing to help with the pretence, drugs alcohol etc. These may help for a little while, but they never make the mountains go away. When they sober up or dry out or whatever these folks do, the mountains are still there.

2. Some people are stopped by the mountains.

They are like the kids on the bear hunt. How many of you have ever been on a bear hunt with the kindergartners? If you have never been on a bear hunt with the kindergartners, you need to get with my wife and let her take you on a bear hurt. She takes theses kids bear hunting, but they never leave their chairs. Anyway, they come to the mountain, they can’t go over it, they can’t go around it, they can’t go under it, and so they decide to go through it. That’s where they find the bear and they run all the way back to the classroom, which they never left to start with. I tell you, if you’ve never been on a bear hunt with the kindergartners, you really need to go!