Obstacles. They stand in our way. Thwart our plans. Cause us to stumble. Change our course.

Sometimes the obstacles are good. Detours the Lord wants us to take. Investments he wants us to make. Lives he wants us to touch.

Sometimes the obstacles are distractions from what we should be doing. Diversions that keep us from being disciplined. Interruptions that pull our attention from where it needs to be.

Sometimes the obstacles seem like mountains.

Looming over us. Between us and our goal.

Do we go over them? Or under them? Or do we tell them to move?

The idea brings to mind the scene in The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring when the Fellowship must cross the Mountains of Moria. The mountain, Caradhras, thwarts the Fellowship’s attempts to go over and forces them to go under, through the Mines, where they encounter further danger from the mountain.

But in the end, they make it to the other side.

We may not have to fight snowstorms and avalanches or orcs and the balrog, but there are plenty of mountains in our life.

So I call out to God, reminding him of his promises.

“And I will make my mountains into level paths for them.
    The highways will be raised above the valleys.” Isaiah 49:11

Thank you, Father, for the things you remove in my life that keep me from following you and doing what you’ve call me to do.

…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1

Thank you, Father, for showing me what needs to go, what’s tripping me, what’s slowing me down.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:6

Thank you, Father, for guiding me and showing me the way.