The Mountain in the Distance

The Mountain in the Distance

— By M.T. Clark — P-1968, 05/20/2026 — Today’s Audio Podcast

Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of Willard Mountain rising in the distance over a wide green clearing — framed by a leaning old barn on the left and tall bare-branched spring trees on the right — comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this view from the clearing at the end of Freedom Road on my last walk back to my former countryside home in Easton, NY, back on April 26th, 2026.

Well, it’s Wednesday, and I share this photo of Willard Mountain in the distance as a visual reminder that we have made it to another midweek summit. So Happy Hump Day! Yes, we are halfway through another week — and we can be sure that the Lord will be with us every step of the way as we set our sights on the Memorial Day weekend on the horizon.

Our series, “Walking in the Spirit,” continues today with a truth about the long view.

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The Mountain in the Distance

The Spirit-led life is not a sprint.

It is a walk. It is a long walk. And it is often an uphill walk, because we have answered the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

It is a walk made up of thousands of smaller steps. Those steps are our daily decision to walk in the Spirit, our weekly decision to gather with God’s people, our seasonal decision to surrender more of ourselves, and our annual decision to keep going when an “easier” road is offered.

The whole Christian walk is the repeated decision to say “yes” to the Holy Spirit who is leading us.

Hebrews 12 describes our journey of faith this way:

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” — Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)

Two things jump out of that passage. First, the race that is set before us. This is not a race we chose. It is a race the Lord has set in front of us, designed for us specifically, that we are meant to run.

Second, we run looking unto Jesus. The whole journey of faith is sustained by keeping our eyes on Him — not on the distance still ahead, not on the others on the road ahead of us, not on the ground beneath our feet. On Him.

This is one of the hardest disciplines of the Spirit-led life. Keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord. Most of us spend more time looking at the path than at the Person leading us down it.

We get anxious about how far we still have to go. We get discouraged by how slowly we seem to be progressing. We compare ourselves to other believers and conclude that we are behind.

None of this is the Holy Spirit’s work in us. All of it is the flesh trying to drag our focus back to ourselves and away from Christ.

Here is what I have come to understand about the upward Christian journey. The mountain in the distance is real. The summit is real. But the summit is not the goal. The walk with Jesus IS the goal.

We are not walking toward a destination called arrival. We are walking alongside a Person called Immanuel — God with us. The whole point of the journey is the company we keep.

Paul says it in Philippians 3:13-14:

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV)

Notice what Paul does NOT do. He does not look back at his failures and let them define his current progress. He does not look forward at how much road is left and let it discourage him. He does one thing. He forgets what is behind. He reaches forward to what is ahead. He presses on. Step by step. Day by day. Decision by decision.

I have learned to take the long view on this walk. When you have been at it for years, you start to see what your younger Christian self could not see — that the slow accumulation of faithful obedience turns into something the world cannot manufacture.

Our decision to take the high road results in a peace that nobody can take from us. Our choice to keep going gives us a faith that has been tried and tested. As we go, we will see the Lord’s faithfulness to help us in every part of our journey.

The mountain in the distance does not feel as far away as it used to, because the walking has changed us. It has trained our legs. It has cleared our eyes. It has built in us the kind of endurance Hebrews 12 talks about — the kind that does not come from determination but from years of looking unto Jesus.

If we are tired today, hear this: the narrow road of faith is a rough one, but God does not call us to walk it on our own.

He is not going to ask us to do this in our own strength. The Holy Spirit who lives in us is the same Spirit who has carried every believer up every mountain they needed to overcome since the first day of the church.

The Holy Spirit has not run out of fuel. He has not lost the trail. He is still leading us forward, one step at a time, even on days when we cannot see where this high road leads.

Stop measuring your progress by where the mountain is. Start measuring it by Who is walking with you. He is closer than the next breath. The journey is shorter than it feels — and you can walk it when you keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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