Here's Why Thin Places Are Better Than Mountain-Top Faith Experiences

I sat nodding in church the other day as one of our pastors debunked the view that faith is a journey over mountains and through valleys. It’s not just the variance in the incline, the times God feels close and then distant, that sum up a faith walk. Rather, Jon Weece insisted, a truer picture is a roller coaster. There are the peaks and plummets, jerky twists and scream-stopping corkscrews. In short, it’s a whole lot messier than mere ups and downs, as we’re often taught.

Mountains and valleys may be common language if you grew up going to youth group, Bible camp, conferences. It was for me, a small-town homeschooled girl whose social life was comprised of 4-H and youth group activities. I learned that we don’t get to stay on the mountaintop, where God is tangibly close. That valleys are inevitable, so you’d better brace for them.

For a long time, I thought the responsibility fell on me to prolong the mountain-peak connection with God. If only I kept up the hour-long quiet times we had scheduled for us during summer mission trips. If only I talked to God throughout the day. If only I stuck to my Bible-reading plan.

Have you felt that too?

The pressure to do all the right things in order to stay close to God.

The shame when you fail.

The numb of not caring.

You can list the times God felt closest, and the one common denominator is that you weren’t home. You were at a special prayer gathering, women’s conference, Asbury-inspired revival. In those moments you’d do anything for God. You promised Him your whole heart. Your willing yes. Your hands. Feet. Time. Trust.

But then you came home, and it all faded. Regular life has an unforgiving pace, and it swooshed you fast to car lines, full inboxes, and all the extras. The clarity and compassion in God’s voice is now but a memory. You settle into valley life where God is mostly for Sunday mornings and an occasional speed-dial.

If this is the best it gets, I get why we’re bored. Bone-weary. Unfulfilled.

God With Us, Always

When I search Scripture, I find that God never promises easy, but He does promise us Himself—always.

John 16:33 tells me to expect things to be broken and painful, but also that God is with us in those moments. Here’s His promise:

And everything I’ve taught you is so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence as you rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!”
TPT

We’ll walk through storms, but we get to carry peace, rest, courage. It’s not storm or these gifts that come with being close to Jesus. It’s both. Often at the same time.

This sounds like something other than mountains and valleys. Periods of thriving and times where everything feels dry and God is distant. It’s God near no matter what. With us in celebration and stretched-out waiting. Present in all the seasons that cycle us round the sun.

Mountain Tops Vs. Thin Places

What I’m finding is that God is always here. It’s just my awareness of Him that is fickle. So rather than living for the mountain-top experiences and bracing for weary walks through the valleys, I’m seeking thin places.

I first heard the term “thin places” from Katie Pozzuoli, one of the contributors to Begin Within: A Gratitude Series. She explained it like this:

But when I think about Ingrid’s final days? I am humbled and grateful. My heart is full because I got to be with my friend in a time and place where it mattered deeply. I am thankful for the privilege of standing so close with her in that thin place, as the Irish Celtics called it–a place where one can almost see the wispy veil that separates this earthly dwelling from our heavenly one.

* Read the rest of Katie’s story, “Gratitude in the Thin Places,” HERE.

The second time I heard the words laced together, I immediately paid attention. “What are your thin places?” Jennifer Dukes Lee asked pre-launch of her guided journal, Stuff I’d Only Tell God.

To quote a little from her Instagram post,

There’s a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart. But with thin places? The distance narrows tighter.

Thin places are physical locations where the veil between heaven and earth seems almost porous.

Here, you sense that you are in the middle of a sacred, transcendent place.

You can breathe again. God is very near.
Jennifer Dukes Lee

* Learn more about Stuff I’d Only Tell God HERE.

For me, thin places are a mixture of what heals and what hurts. I find them on mountains and in valleys. In sunrises making rainbows in footprints on the beach. The burble of a creek hushing the noise in my heart. Voices lifted in sincere, unified worship. And in things that pull me to my knees, spill raw-edged onto journal pages.

Sometimes I need the things that make me cry to know down in my bones that God is here.

And maybe you do too.

Here’s permission to stop pursuing the mountaintop experiences with God. They’re overrated and short-lived.

You also have permission to stop holding your breath through the valleys. Telling yourself just to get through it. Blaming yourself for where you are.

Let’s trade the mountain/valley view for a different one. One that can bring you through the wild, rollercoaster ride that looks a lot more like actual life.

Always-Access to The Unchanging God

Truth is that God’s not nearer on the mountains than He is in the valleys. He’s the same unchanging God and we have always-access to Him.

Also true is that we find the thin places—where the space between heaven and earth is paper-thin—when we seek Him.

Turn with me to Jeremiah 29:12-13. I’ll read from The Message:

When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.

Here’s to seeking the thin places in the middle of the ups and downs and twists and turns of our lives.

May we know the near-God everywhere our feet land.

May we treasure the sound of His voice over all that divides and distracts.

May we adore Him with cracked voices, hallelujah hands, and our surrendered lives.

May our awareness of Him grow.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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