After the Mountain

After the Mountain

The day after Easter always has a particular quality. The celebration is over; ordinary life resumes. There's something almost deflating about it — like returning from a retreat or a powerful conference and finding that the dishes still need doing and the emails have piled up.

But I've been thinking about Peter, James, and John coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus wouldn't let them stay. The mountain was for a moment; the valley was where the ministry was.

The mountaintop experience is meant to fuel the ordinary days. What I received in Easter worship — the joy, the conviction, the renewed hope — is not for keeping. It is for living.