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I often think about how Noah felt about his Ark a week before the flood. An almost completed ark sitting in his front yard miles away from the nearest water’s edge. I wonder how many times he questioned his mission, the voice that instructed him, his faith in what he was doing. With all the animals loaded and not acloud in the sky I am sure Noah has come to the grips with the fact that the world as he knew it was over. If the storm didn’t come then he would have found himself to betruly insane. Once the ark began to take form and completing it was inevitable he knew that there was no going back.

The ark was useless until the rains came. Nobody needs a life boat on dry land. A boat is worth only the sum of its parts until it is needed. Once it is needed then it becomes invaluable.

Our faith is very similar to the ark. When things go our way the faith that we have is not needed as much nor is it much appreciated. This isn’t because we are not thankful of what we have as much and is not necessarily a bad thing. When things are going our way we see the fruits of our beliefs. If we work hard and do right then we will be rewarded. When the reward comes then that in which we believed is confirmed and we do not need faith in the fact that it will.

When climbing a mountain you believe that there is something on the other side. If you have never been to that other side you rely on your faith that it is there.

Imagine being stranded in the mountains and you believe that there is help on the other side you set out to climb the mountain and find rescue. Your belief is the strongest when you begin. You are at your most rested and at your most nourished. As you hike up the mountain and the strain of the task at hand begins to take hold you begin to doubt if you made the right decision. You begin to question your belief that there would be help on the other side of the mountain. You then draw on your faith that what you believe is true. The more exhausted you become and as your supplies run out you cross the point of no return. If there is no help on the other side of the mountain you will surely parish. You think about all the time you spent studying the mountains looking for the route that would yield the best chances of survival. You begin to doubt that you made the right decision. You study your memories of what the mountain looked like from afar. As the light fades and the cold sets in you wonder how well you planned your hike torescue , could you have brought more food, could you have packed more water, did you time this right, should you have left early, should you have waited one more day? Alone climbing a mountain when everything that you are is on the line is a rather lonelyexperience . You are left when your own thoughts, alone and cold your faith hold back a dam of doubt. You know that you can not quit. You have risked everything. You are terrified. Thebelief that rescue is on the other side of the mountain is irrelevant now. Your faith that you would will find rescue is all that you have. You pray to whoever will listen.

When the top of the mountain is in sight, you know you will make it to the top, you have nothing but faith that there are green valleys with milk and honey waiting for you on theother side. It is all you have been imagining. It is what was keeping you going. You expell the last of your energy and race towards the mountain top, hoping to see a city, town, village, or a house you assume that it will all be downhill from here on out.

As you stand and the mountain top you see another mountain only slightly smaller than the once you used every ounce of determination and stamina to climb. The mountain being slightly smaller than the one you just climbed is not much as arelief since it fails to hide the mountain behind it and the one behind that. Staring into the sea of mountains unsure of what to do next you take the next logical step. You make camp and do the same thingtomorrow.

Some people would stay put hope that you at least managed to get to a place in which rescue could find you. Some people would lay down and let the mountain claim them. You don’t. You don’t because there is a life that you want to get back to. You doubt that you have the strength to get back to that life. Your faith got you up the mountain and might be able to get you down it to the other side, but that faith alone is not enough. You know that there is somebody waiting for you. You know that they have faith that you will do whatever it takes to see them again, to pull yourself out of this mess. Theybelieve in you. They know that whatever trouble you may find yourself in you will never give up trying to get out of it. If it is possible for you to get out of this mountain then you will, if you cannot then you will simply die trying. You know that you if you do die you want them to see the dragging marks left behind for when you could not walk anymore you crawled. You are motivated not just for the life you wish to return to, but the life that you wish to share. Your love becomes a beacon in which you will crawl through whatever is in front of you to return to. Thatbeacon becomes the most important thing on the planet. When your faith is gone, when all hope has left, it is that love that gives you what you need to find rescue.

It is not enough for us to believe and have faith in ourselves. When the storm comes you need need someone to believe in you. You need to believe that there is someone there that can see things from a different perspective, a part of the picture that you cannot, and you trust that personsbelief in you.

For me, that person was is Jen. I built my ark in the desert and have been stranded in the mountains. I lost site of all that was around me and what I was doing.Delirious with pain and filled with despair knowing that this wonderful and amazing human believed that I could find rescue and that what I was doing was important gave me what I needed to pull through.