“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7

Grand Teton National Park is filled with the kind of majestic mountains that take your breath away and restore your soul at the same time. 

Hiking in the mountains is something I enjoy. The view from the top is always worth the effort to get there. But in the Tetons, I stand in the valley, awestruck and worshiping in the shadow of God’s Creation. 

Mountains and Valleys

 A recent visit gave me a new insight. It is possible to experience a “mountain top moment” while standing in the valley. We don’t have to stand on the top of every mountain—physically or spiritually—to experience the joy of the Lord. Sometimes we find our greatest joy while serving in the valley.

I love mountaintop moments. I also know I can’t stay there. The air is too thin and there is little there to sustain my life. This is a physical truth, but it’s also a spiritual truth.

God hasn’t called us to live an isolated life perched on the peak of awestruck holy wonder. He’s called us to be the hands and feet of Christ, bringing good news to His people.

The Significance of Feet

Have you ever shared the Gospel with another? Have you prayed over a dying friend, traveled to a poverty-stricken area to feed the hungry both physically and spiritually? I’ve experienced spiritual mountaintops inside the walls of a prison as well as in deli’s when a stranger suddenly starts pouring out their deepest hurts to me. I know those are the times when the Holy Spirit uses me to be “the feet of him who brings good news.”

A mountain top in the depths of a valley. 

Sometimes our highest mountaintop moments are found as we are washing the feet of others.

Isn’t it interesting that Isaiah 52:7 says, “how beautiful are the feet”? Feet are for moving. We use a distinctly different part of our anatomy for sitting, which is often what we do when we reach the top of the mountain.

A World Unseen

From the mountain top we see a world unseen from the valley floor, and we try to linger in the experience. But what we see on the mountaintop isn’t for ourselves alone. We must take our experience back into the depths of despair, indifference, disbelief, and often times hatred found in the depths below. 

But the God of the mountain tops is also the God of the valleys. It’s in the valleys that we grow.

On the heights God equips us for the battles raging in the valleys below. 

We say to those about to give up “Don’t surrender. Don’t stop. Don’t become weary in fighting the good fight.”

We tell them, “I’ve seen what lies beyond this valley and it is good. I have seen beyond this battle to the victory that awaits. Keep going! Don’t give up! Your mountaintop awaits.”

The darkest valleys are where the fiercest battles are fought. And it is there that the greatest victories attained. 

You have a mission—a purpose. 

And we serve a God’s whose glory can be seen from the bottom of the mountain as well as from the top.