Have Faith & Keep Moving Forward

During the summer of 2000, I was in Egypt for 7 weeks participating in a study abroad program. The law school courses I was taking were held at the American University of Cairo during the week. On the weekends, my classmates and I traveled to different places throughout Egypt, including the Pyramids of Giza, Alexandria, the Valley of the Kings, Luxor and Aswan. I was particularly excited that one of our excursions included climbing Mount Sinai.

The day that we were going to climb Mount Sinai finally arrived. We were to climb Mount Sinai in the middle of the night so that we could reach the top by sunrise and make it back down the mountain before it got too hot. I can still remember the excitement I felt as we started up the mountain. I was determined to make it to the top of Mount Sinai.

Well into the journey, I started getting a stomach ache. Most of us kept stomach medication on us, but for some reason, I did not have any on me and neither did anyone in the group I was climbing with. I recall that at one point I was not sure if I was going to make it. I remember praying to God to help me make it to the top of the mountain. I kept moving forward.

Moments later, we came upon a camel station. There was a camel named Abu  available for me to ride a portion of the way up the mountain. I was scared to ride a camel but my desire to make it to the top of Mount Sinai was stronger than my fear. I boarded the camel and we were on our way.

After we traveled for a distance, we came upon another group of my classmates. One of them had some medicine and she gave it to me to calm my stomach. By the time we made it to the part of the mountain where camels could no longer travel, I was well enough to climb the remainder of the way to the top of Mount Sinai. My prayer had been answered.

I hope you see yourself in my story. I hope you see that if you just have the faith to keep moving forward towards your goals you will achieve them. Hey, I get it, sometimes when we are moving towards our goals the unexpected things that crop up seem insurmountable. Or sometimes the unexpected things that happen seem like they are signs that things just aren’t meant to be.

When I was climbing Mount Sinai and got sick I could have taken that as a sign to give up. I actually may have thought to myself, “I could just go back. Everyone would understand. I am sick and I do not have medication.” But had I stopped and turned around instead of having faith and moving forward, I would not have known that there was a camel named Abu just around the bend who would help me reach my goal.

If I did not have faith and keep moving forward, I never would have come across one of my classmates who was able to give me medicine to keep me going. Had I not had faith and kept moving forward, I would not have known that I could make it to the top of the mountain.

So the next time you are moving forward in pursuit of your goals and something unexpected happens: consider my Mount Sinai story, have faith and keep moving forward.