Going up the Rough Side of the Mountain.

Carlton Foster – March 2022

We usually think of resistance as something not good, but resistance exists everywhere on the earth’s surface. Friction is the resistance that one character or object encounters when moving over another or the objection a person experiences from others. Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other or the reaction a person experiences. Another example is the viscosity of a fluid, which measures its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of “thickness”: syrup has a higher viscosity than water. There is a certain amount of resistance a person or object may encounter as they traverse the terrains of their lives; the more resistance you get makes it harder to move; equally, less resistance will make you slide easily along the surface. We will concentrate on the benefit of resistance in our lives.

God has given us resistance to make us stronger and better by helping us improve our desires and focus. Without resistance, we would not realize that we need to improve. So, resistance is there to make us more resilient. So even though we think resistance is not good, I realized that there is a blessing when we encounter some resistance in our lives. For example, if we take the object lesson off a mountain with two sides, one side is very slippery while the other is very rough. We hear the notion of “going up the wrong side of the mountain.” Some concepts refer to the experience as going up the rough side of the mountain. This mountain has two slopes, one that has no resistance; it is very slippery, and the other side is rough. The effort of climbing either side will show us in life which side of the mountain helps us and which side is detrimental to our mental and physical bodies. For example, on the slippery side of the mountain, if you try to get up that side of the mountain, it will drain your muscles, it will make you get tired, and your body and mind will deteriorate, discouraging you from advancing because every inch that you go up, you slide back a few inches. So it would be challenging to go up on the slippery side of the mountain.

However, on the rough side of the mountain, even though it is rough, it has lots of resistance there to help you improve as you try to go up that side of the mountain. Your muscle will get stronger as you go from one step to another; eventually, you will get up to the top of the mountain, and no doubt you’ll get up there faster than if you were trying to on the slippery side. That climb on the rough side of the mountain will allow you to experience life as you traverse the different rough parts of the mountain. So the resistances and obstacles are there to help us travel these mountains up and down several times; you will become an expert mountain climber. The difficulty of climbing the rough side of the mountain becomes less and less as you experience the climb.

Even with such a gift from God, scientists explored and discovered all kinds of methods in order to traverse these resistances with ease. For example, today, we use wheels to make traversing these rough terrains easier. Even though these invented wheels do help, they do not add or contribute to more robust physical or mental capabilities; instead, they diminish it. There are times when we are more interested in the achievement of traversing these displacements in as short a time as possible rather than the benefit that it would give to our physical bodies if we were to climb or walk these life experiences ourselves. Today we have seen several technologies traversing huge distances in no time. For example, airplanes, space crafts, cars, trains, boats are there to help us travel huge displacements without much resistance. Still, we have seen that those who take the time and the effort to physically mitigate the resistance in their lives, make an effort to get from one place to the other. By “going up the rough side of the mountain,” we would say that they accomplish great things in their lives.

Health, strength, and well-being are essential. Resistance and objections are what God has given us as a gift for our benefit. He had all these things planned for us, and we did not realize it. We thought it was against us, but resistance is there to build us up. Another example is if we have a group meeting trying to come up with some conclusion as we discussed objectives and goals. If we have no one to resist or oppose a particular idea, if everyone agrees with the chairperson, then chances are, we would leave the meeting thinking that we have accomplished something without any resistance. But if there were someone who every so often questioned our motives or approaches, then we would rethink and come up with answers as to why this may be better than that and may see the need or ability to revisit and listen to other advisors may seem like resistance, but it only helps us to dig deeper into our thoughts and minds to come up with answers and to justify why we believe what we believe. This resistive approach to getting information is beneficial to the ultimate goal. It is important to mitigate issues and resistance always to have a winsome spirit and a better outcome.

Many people are perplexed and frustrated with the thought of “going up the rough side of the mountains” in their lives. This attitude will demoralize them from even trying; they might even go to the slippery – easily-looking side of the mountain and spend their time trying to climb on that side. To them, this slippery side looks like the right side; however, it is the wrong side of the mountain. Many people go through life always choosing the wrong side of the mountain to climb. They will spend many years trying repeatedly but still not getting anywhere. At the same time, you will have others choose the rough – right side of the mountain. In no time, they would advance in their lives and become successful. The effort will improve their health, financial, educational, or emotional well-being. This outlook will be inevitable; it will eventually be accomplished by going up the rough side of the mountains of your life.

There are still others who will accomplish some of these same things without going on either side of the mountain. These are the exceptions. How can they get up on top of the mountain without climbing either side? How is that possible? Well, there are influential people in this world who, instead of physically doing that climb, take a plane or a helicopter to get there. Where did they get this plane or helicopter from? They got it from investors, their wealthy parents, or entrepreneur. These can acquire the mechanism you can use to get up on top of the mountain without climbing either the slippery or the rough side. These are the minorities in societies who can accomplish goals and objectives without physically climbing some of the mountains in their lives.

Nevertheless, God has given us this tool of resistance and obstacles to benefit us, and we need to see it as an advantage for us rather than a detriment. We need to approach “our mountains” in our lives not with disgust and disdain, but we need to approach these mountains as opportunities and advantages to help us to move forward. While we are moving forward up the rough side of life, we should use these experiences to gain more benefits, knowledge, and wisdom as we climb. Now you will understand why there is a great accomplishment when a mountain climber reaches the top of the peak. They usually went in search of other mountains to climb. What are the mountains in your life today? Climb them!