It's Rarely About The Hill

​Today, I am presenting at the Overcoming Trauma Through Connection Conference in Danville, VA. I will start by asking the question, "How Steep Is Your Hill?"

Many years ago, the University of Virginia conducted a study. They put a group of students at the foot of a large hill with a loaded backpack and had them estimate how steep the hill was they were about to be challenged to climb.

The catch is - the students were divided into two groups.

One group of students got to stand next to a friend while they looked at the hill. The other group, well they stood staring at the hill alone.

The research revealed that the students looking at the hill standing by themselves estimated the climb was going to be much greater than the students standing next to friends. Further, the closer the students felt to the friend standing next to them, the less climb they saw in the hill.

How steep is your hill? The answer usually has nothing to do with the hill; it almost always has EVERYTHING to do with who is standing with you when you look at your hill.

There is a lot of talk about the impacts of loneliness in our world today. Maybe the greatest impact is just how many people see the hills in their lives as much more daunting than they really are simply because they look at those hills alone.

Looking at daunting hills equals stress. Sleeplessness. Depression. Thoughts of suicide.

I know.

And I also know just how much hills shrink when someone looks at that hill with you.

The bible tells us: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Sometimes having faith the size of a mustard seed isn't easy to find. Sometimes the mustard seed seems as big as the mountain. Until someone stands beside you and takes your hand as you talk to your mountains.

Sometimes the mustard seed is US.

Us coming along side someone lost and staring at their mountain. Us, pouring the faith that runs through our hearts and minds into theirs.

Us who say, together I think we can move this mountain.

How steep is you hill?

Rarely is the answer about the hill.