Songs About Mountains

I love that God speaks to us through various methods at different times.  Sometimes it’s a passage of Scripture, sometimes a sermon.  Sometimes it comes in a whispered thought or through the voice of a friend.  The past few weeks I’ve heard God speak through my 4-year-old, and through music.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about the long three-years of limbo our family has been (and still are) experiencing. The day after we received the news that another door had closed in Dave’s career transition, Abby and I were up very early to drive to a doctor’s appointment about an hour away.

I have a playlist of songs Abby loves which we listen to on our drives to preschool, and so I was all set to click shuffle and set my cruise control, when from the back seat I heard her voice.

“Mama!  I want Big Enough!”

I smiled a bit, even though the tears were threatening before I’d even found the right playlist.  She hadn’t asked for that song in months, and we hadn’t heard it recently.

I knew God was speaking.

I first heard the song probably two years ago, and I remember where I was and what had been happening just before.  Dave and I had just finished a heart-to-heart about our family’s future and what we felt God was asking us to do.  At that point, we didn’t know our time with the Army would be ending so soon.  But we had prayed a prayer of surrender, “God, whatever you want from us, we’ll do.”  I wasn’t sure what was coming, or how the future we thought we were headed toward fit with what we’d prayed.

The song starts off with, “I’ve got a heart that’s full of faith-filled helplessness/there are mountains ahead that I can’t move by myself.”  I had no idea, on that first listen, the mountain looming on the horizon.

But last week in the car, that first line was like a punch to the gut.  Now we see the mountain.  And we can’t move it.  We are helpless.  But our faith can still be strong.

Lyrics from the chorus reminded, me, ‘He’ll finish everything He starts/He’ll meet us right here where we are,” and the comfort I find in that truth.  We surrendered to Him before we knew what He was doing, but He’s the one who will finish the story.

After Big Enough finished, another song by Joseph Habedank came on.  It’s called Never No Never, and the first bars playing through my car speakers made me chuckle a bit even as I wiped at my eyes.  It’s a direct quote from Psalm 37, “I’ve never [no never] seen the righteous forsaken.”  And just that morning, Dave and I had read Psalm 37 in our Chronological Bible plan.  Just another reminder: He sees us.  He hasn’t forgotten us.  He won’t forsake us.

Before the song was half-way finished, Abby piped up again from the back seat, “Now I want Greater Things!!”

This time I really did laugh, though the tears hadn’t stopped.

Ok, God.  I see You.

We’ve been singing this at church recently, and my favorite line in the whole song is from the verse, “You’ve done the impossible/we’ve seen our mountains move before!”

There’s a mountain ahead we can’t move by ourselves, but we’ve seen our mountains move before!  Even writing this now, I have chills and tears.  God is not done with us yet!

Songs About Mountains

Reflecting on this experience later in my journal, I started looking back at other songs I’ve found impactful this past three years.  I was surprised to realize how many of them reference mountains.

Trust in You, by Lauren Daigle: “When You don’t move the mountain I’m needing you to move…I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You.”

Made a Way, by Travis Greene: “You move mountains/You cause walls to fall/with Your power perform miracles/There is nothing that’s impossible/and we’re standing here only because You made a way.”

Do It Again, by Elevation Worship: “I’ve seen You move, come move the mountains/and I believe, I’ll see You do it again!‘  (When I first heard this song, I really only paid attention to this bridge, but I remember clearly the day I really listened to the verse and chorus…”Your promise still stands, great is Your faithfulness, faithfulness/I’m still in Your hands, this is my confidence, You’ve never failed me yet!” What a testimony!)

And then other songs came to mind, not with specific mountain references, but with truths that have held me up when looking around at our situation began to cause my faith to falter.

Trust in You, by Anthony Brown, “You did not create me to worry/You did not create me to fear….No more crying, no more complaining/I believe Your Word is true/ Lord You promised never to leave me lonely/so this is what I’m going to do/ I will trust in You Lord/ I will trust in You Lord/I will put my trust in You.”

Waymaker, as sung by The Pentecostals of Alexandria, especially the bridge: “Even when I don’t see it, You’re working/ Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working/ You never stop, You never stop working!”

Take Another Step, by Stephen Curtis Chapman: “Take another step/ take another step/ when the road ahead is dark and you don’t know where to go/ trust God and take another step… If there’s an ocean in front of you, you know what you’ve got to do/Take another step, and another step/maybe He’ll turn the water into land/ And maybe He’ll take your hand and say/ Let’s take a walk on the waves/Will you trust Me either way and take another step?”

Finally, an old Swedish hymn I’d never heard, until our trip to Copenhagen last year, which spoke to some very specific fears at a very specific time, Blott en Dag (Day by Day).

Encouragement to Trust

I know this post is a little different than some of my others, but I felt it on my heart to document a reminder to myself of the countless ways God has spoken to me in the past three years through songs and music.

And, hopefully, it will encourage someone else to trust Him today.

He did not create you to worry.

He is working for you, even when you don’t see or feel it.

He’s come through before, He will do it again.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other by faith.

The mountain will move, or He’ll give you strength to climb it.

I want to sing His praise and thank Him, either way.