Mountains

So I don't know if any of you remember the old movie "Chariots of Fire".  It's about 2 runners in the 1924 Olympics.  Eric Liddell was an MK in China, but back in Scotland for a time.  My favorite line from the movie is when he says, "I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure." 

I feel similarly about mountains - when I see mountains, and particularly when I get to hike in them, there's just a great sense of contentment.  I am home somehow, whether I am actually in VA or not.  I am awestruck by the creative genius of God.  A curiosity awakens to want to explore and climb to the top.  I feel like I can best worship our Creator when I am seeing, in, or on top of mountains.

A fun little gift I received in the mail today from Dottie :)

Being in Ft. Myers has been particularly difficult because of the total lack of even a small hill. (highest point in FL is a long way away and only 345 feet high) 
So, what happens with this?  I've been thinking about how this plays into future plans, situations, etc.  For one I know I am much happier when there are mountains around, but should a mere geographical feature have that much impact on my emotional state?  Should it change how or how much I worship God?  Well, I think it changes the how, but hopefully not the how much.  Apparently I need to work on other avenues of really experiencing and celebrating God.  So I reviewed my tendencies on different styles to worship God (here's the "test") and as I figured, ranked highest in 'naturalist' and 'caregiver' and 'intellectual' (HA, ok I hadn't figured on that one!).  However my lowest are 'activist' and 'traditionalist'.  So maybe I need to do a little therapy on my activist and traditionalist muscles...

Since I've known for a long time (perhaps the most memorable example - sitting in Glacier Nat'l Park in 2005 and feeling so close to God and just awed by His work) that I am made this way, and so I try to incorporate some 'nature' into my weeks.  I feel like I keep hitting dead ends here however, or when I do get somewhere it's a bit of a let down from what I'm accustomed to (yes, I have been spoiled by VA, CO, AZ and plenty of trips in the past).  BUT, you say, you're within an hour access of the beach, or even closer with large bodies of water!  Well, I have decided to once and for all prove that the mountains are more awesome than the beach!  ;)  Proof as follows, pick 1 for each pair:

1 or 2 ?

3 or 4?

5 or 6 ?

  7 or 8?

  

9 or 10?

Ok, now that you've tallied your results, which one wins (more odd #'s = beach, even #'s = mountains)?  Notice I did not put any pictures of mountain/ocean combo, because that would be cheating!  All the mountain pics I took (ok, maybe the one of Half Dome an innocent bystander took...) and all the beach pics are ones off Google because I wanted good pictures...most of my beach pics are not so pretty.  So obviously for me the mountains win!  Thankfully God did make us all different so that some of you like the beaches better (because living arrangements could be a problem if EVERYONE wanted to be in the mountains!)

Side note: I did finally get to go SUP'ing today (Stand Up Paddleboarding) and it was pretty fun...I do admit it would be very hard to do that in the mountains...say 10,000 ft in an alpine lake that you have to hike 4 miles to...