Sara stared at the gigantic mountain from beneath it with dread.

The mountain, for some reason failed to announce its massiveness some miles away.

It had looked like something she could tackle easily, especially with the help of her power bike. Josh had always wondered how she could prefer journeying with a bike rather than the comfort of a car.

Well, she liked that it was not only free and faster but also easier to maneuver on bumpy roads.

Although nobody had warned her to watch out for an immense mountain but they had at least told her about the few bumps on the road, which turned out to be gross understatement.

She found consolation in the fact that after every bump was a new exciting discovery and it got her closer to the venue.

The King of her kingdom, Dukaduniya Kingdom was having a banquet and it was a matter of necessity that she attended. She didn’t want to have to be told about it.

It was pertinent that she witnessed it herself. The people had heard a lot told about how it was a ‘must attend’ event, the banquet of all banquets and better than any other experience in life.

It was even a feat that she had been invited in the first place. The King had invited people from different spheres of life, not minding their social status.

In fact, most of the people that got the invite were those on the least level of the social strata. And amazingly, the only requirement had been to know the King.

Everybody had been shocked when the king announced the  requirement for the invite. They all wondered how they could have access to the King, let alone know him.

The King had however assured them that they should come as they were as he was always available. That was all she had needed to hear.

She and Josh, her brother, were beyond ecstatic when the King’s steward knocked on their door that faithful day, few weeks ago to hand over their invitation card to the banquet.

Josh was already ahead of her and when they spoke last on phone, he didn’t tell her about the mountain, he only said he had met a carnival and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

She had yet to see any carnival and couldn’t help but wonder if the carnival was at the other side of the mountain.

She turned on the ignition and moved with great force up the mountain.

She was almost at the middle when she heard a pleasant noise and turned her face sideways enjoying the song.

Unfortunately, she did not notice until she saw herself at the bottom that she had for some reason slid downward.

She tried to move back up with the force she used earlier, only to discover to her chagrin that it wasn’t quite as easy as it was few minutes ago, it had become slippery.

Suddenly, she noticed a gush of water coming down the mountain like rain but shockingly only the mountain was watered, leaving the surrounding land under it dry.

That made the height even harder to climb.

If only she had not gotten so comfortable and allowed herself to be distracted but kept ahead with the energy with which she started, she most probably would have gotten to the top by now.

She was just about to give up when she saw an old woman a couple of feet above, dancing in the water, and as she danced she moved a little higher.

Sara was perplexed; she couldn’t imagine how the old woman without any vehicle was getting ahead while she kept on sliding down.

“How do you seem to be climbing this mountain without stress?”, she yelled to the old woman.

The woman gave her a surprised look and said, “Is it really difficult? I don’t know about that, I am just enjoying the fresh spring water”.

Life is all about perspective. It is simple to the simple and difficult to the difficult.

Are you going to give up because you failed a few times or are you going to learn from your mistakes, get up and achieve your goal?

It’s your own fault you let yourself get distracted and so you should be able to get yourself back on the track and keep running.

Being a Christian is the same. Distractions usually hit a huge blow on our Christian race and depending on how flat we fall, getting back up is not always easy.

However here is the catch: God’s got you.
So you have no excuse to become lax. No matter how slippery the road becomes, if you don’t give up, you will get back on your feet.
You only just need to make a decision whether to wallow in self-pity or learn the lesson and enjoy the ride back up.
Jesus loves you!