I love the mountains. I love looking at them, hiking over them, driving through them, taking pictures of them…well, you get the point. I love them in the fall when the aspens are fire-yellow. I love them in the winter when they’re covered in snow. I love them in the spring when they are as green as a southern suburban lawn. I love them in the summer when the meadows are full of wildflowers. In case I wasn’t clear, I love the mountains.
I can walk onto my back deck and look at Pikes Peak, ”America’s Mountain.” Looking at it never gets old. When I drive home from visiting family in Missouri, I can see the top of the mountain from 70 miles away on a clear day. That view stirs warm feelings in my heart, but I’m sure it was not the same for those early pioneers. Why? Because their perspective was very different than mine.
What I think of as home, they thought of as a terrible obstacle to their future. After all, people died trying to cross those mountains. They had made plans for a life on the other side of those mountains, but in the earliest days, there were no roads. As more and more people made the trek to California, traversing the Rockies got easier. Today, with a decent car and anything other than blizzard weather conditions, you can make it from one side of the mountains to the other in just over two hours.
I often hear those in Christian ministry talk about pioneering. I applaud their hearts for making followers of Jesus everywhere, but we must remember that there are few places we’ll go today where someone hasn’t already gone. As I mentioned, I love hiking in the mountains, and some of those trails are difficult…but there are trails. The existence of a trail indicates that someone was there before you, and it was harder for them than for me.
So while it’s good for us to think about pioneering in ministry, let’s have the humility to remember that while the modern-day version of that activity might be difficult, there was a time when it was much more challenging. Remember that the same Lord who sustained them will sustain us if we stay humble and dependent.
Mark Renfroe and his wife, Amy, have been involved in field missions work for 30 years. Mark served as the area director for Assemblies of God World Missions and currently serves as the chief missions officer for World Challenge.