After several hours of studying and being cooped up in my dorm all morning, I decided to go on a little solo adventure. For those of you who don’t know, I go to school in a little town called Ellensburg, right in the middle of Washington. You see, in Ellensburg, there isn’t much to do, especially if you don’t have a car, like me. So, I decided to go to the only place that is relatively close to campus and also sorta cool at the same time; the water tower. I put on some warm clothes, slipped on my white converse and headed towards the little hill that the tower sits on.

When I got to the base of the hill, I walked up the snow-covered hillside about ten feet, only to slip all the way back down to where I started. I instantly realized that I had made the wrong shoe choice; white converse = no go for snow. But, being the stubborn person I am; I decided that I would just try walking up the areas that had dirt rather than snow because I wasn’t about to turn around and go back to my dorm room and watch Grey’s Anatomy like I had been all morning (did I say I was studying?). So, now I was trying to walk up the hill again, taking the alternate dirt route. It wasn’t dirt. It was mud that swallowed my perfectly clean white converse on my first step. Perfect. So, I turned around, threw my hair up in a bun, took a deep breath, and said screw it.

Using all four of my limbs, I climbed up the side of the hill. From a distance, I probably looked like some kind of animal, but in reality; I was just a college freshman trying to make it to the top of a stupid hill, destroying my converse along the way. Yes, I slipped. Yes, I got my knees muddy. Yes, I was breathing hard. and Yes, I made it to the top of the hill. Once I got to the top, I realized that all the frustration that I had just experienced was completely worth it in every way; the view was beautiful, it was a clear, sunny day, and it was refreshing to escape from the constant pressure of freshman year.

Now most of you are probably thinking, “Why do I care about Kaitlyn struggling up a stupid hill and ruining her shoes?” Well… You should care because this is exactly what your relationship with God can feel like sometimes. A lot of the time, we tumble down the hill, get up, look up at the top, and think it looks too hard to get back to where we were before we fell. We know what it’s like to be at the top, filled with God’s joy and feeling extremely close to Him, but sometimes we fall and tumble back down to the bottom after making bad decisions, and maybe twist an ankle along the way. As we look back up to the top, we remember what it was like to live for God, we remember how truly good it was, but getting back to the top just seems way too impossible. We think that we’ve slipped so far away that no matter how hard we try, we’re never going to make it back to the top. But let me tell you; it’s not impossible to get back to the top. Getting back to the top of that hill is hard. You slip, you get dirty, and you get so dang frustrated along the way. It’s not easy and it never will be.

But you, YES YOU, are worthy of God’s love and YOU are capable of getting up that hillside, no matter what you say or do, no matter how much or how you sin, or no matter how far you slip down the hill. YOU ARE WORTHY. Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God literally sent his only son to Earth to live and die for YOU. So, you better believe that you are loved, valued, and worthy to Him.

If you’ve fallen off the top of the hill, get back up, throw your hair in a bun, take a deep breath, be willing to get your knees dirty, and use everything you’ve got to keep climbing after the Lord. God’s waiting to take you on a crazy adventure, you’ve just gotta let Him take you.