It's a Switchback, Not a Setback

She’d been battling late-stage breast cancer for a couple of years when my friend was finally told that there was just one little spot left on her lung and that things were looking good. She went off with friends on a jaunt to the Bahamas, only to come home and hear that the latest scan showed the one spot was growing and there was now cancer in new areas of her body. She was forced to take more time off work to battle this new wave of the disease, and I can only assume that her usually upbeat attitude was now plummeting towards depression and discouragement.

Perhaps you’ve likewise hit a detour on your journey to total healing and restoration in some area of your life, and you need to read these three words: Don’t lose heart.

 

I came across a quote that stuck with me this morning:

“Trust in the slow work of God.” (-Teilhard de Chardin)

 

Waiting is not our strong suit, and yet we are forced to do it again and again. I’m reminded that in my struggle with dieting I have to wait to see weight loss… and as a writer, I have to wait for words to come. As a mother, I’ve had to wait for turnaround in the heart of an angry son. Come to think of it, I had to wait (four years!) for my husband to consider producing those sons! We have to wait for vacations to get here, wait for that check in the mail, wait for food to cook… and in the dark moments of our personal struggles, we have to wait for the Son to rise and bring the Light we’ve been longing for. Hope rises with the dawn, but sometimes the night seems very, very long.

 

I graduated from college with a degree in forestry and worked for a private timber company in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. I remember that in my days as a field forester in the woods I was often overwhelmed by the physical challenges of the job. I worked in steep and hilly terrain, and many were the times I stood in a streambed and looked up at a landing at the top of the hill that I had to climb and thought, “There is just no way.” Looking up, all I could see was how steep the ground was, the rocky outcroppings in the way, and the slippery nature of the rocky soil to be traversed. The only way I could make it was to go sideways up the hill in a series of switchbacks, first to the right, then to the left… back and forth till I reached the top. It seemed to take forever, but I always eventually got to the top. And so will you.

 

The dictionary app on my phone defines switchbacks as a zigzag track arrangement for climbing a steep grade… a “roller coaster” (ain’t that the truth?!)… and as a highway, as in a mountainous area, having many hairpin curves.

 

Maybe you feel like you’ve been thrown a curve with the latest news from your doctor, therapist or financial advisor. But perhaps there’s another way to look at it. You’re still on your way up, you’re just making a turn and heading in the opposite direction for a bit till you take the next turn… and then the next… back and forth until you reach the top.

 

You’ll get there. Keep climbing,

 

“Therefore we do not lose heart...” (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV)