King of the Mountain

Story

The winter I was in sixth grade, we got a lot of snow. The trouble with snow is that you have to find somewhere to put it. My school had a large parking lot, and the shape of the lot made the snowplows pile the snow all in one place. The pile was really high. The school was only one story high, and from the top of the snow pile, it was possible to climb onto the roof.

Such a snow pile presented lots of opportunities for play. First, we tried digging a tunnel through the pile. Our goal was to make the tunnel start at the top and exit at the side so that we could have a kind of slide. But the snow was packed really tightly and was rock-solid, so we didn’t make much progress.

Then, we started to play King of the Mountain. One person would be on top of the snow pile. Everyone else would try to push him off and become the king of the mountain. There could only be one king of the mountain, so as soon as you reached the top, everyone tried to push you down. It was a rough game. Most people couldn’t remain king for long, except for Kunle (pronounced 쿤레이),who was bigger and stronger than the rest of us boys.

In between our King of the Mountain games, we kept digging. Finally, we had a hole that was about 60 cm (2 feet) deep. We made a new rule: anyone who stepped or fell into the hole had to go to the bottom of the snow pile. This created a new way to win. It was much easier to make the king of the mountain step into the hole than it was to push him off the pile. And he could more easily defend himself, since if someone got too close, he only had to push them into the hole and they’d have to go down.

All was fine until my younger brother fell into the hole and hurt his shoulder. Then, our parents and teachers didn’t let us play king of the mountain any more.

Application

King of the mountain is kind of like our lives. We usually try to compete with other people so that we can be the best.If we have to be selfish or unkind in order to compete, we don’t mind doing so. Unfortunately, people often get hurt, just like my brother got hurt. But God’s way is different. God says that we should be kind to other people and put them first.

The Bible says in Matthew 20:26, 28: “Anyone who wants to be important among you must be your servant. And anyone who wants to be first must be your slave. Be like the Son of Man. He did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others.”

Instead of trying to be kings and queens of the mountain, let’s put others first.