The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho

"If you have a past that dissatisfies you, forget it now. Imagine a new story of your life, and believe in it. Concentrate only on those moments in which you achieved what you desired, and this strength will help you to accomplish what you want." - Elijah

If I would name a walking inspiration in my life, one of them would be Paulo Coelho simply because he breathes encouraging thoughts through his novels that triggers a blast of motivation to a person's life. I remember the very first novel of Paulo that I read, "The Alchemist", it taught me to follow my dreams and fulfill my purpose in life. Next was, "The Devil and Miss Prym", it made me embrace my strengths and weaknesses as a human being and despite my weaknesses present within me, I can always choose to do the right thing. "Veronika Decides to Die", taught me to value my life and always live it to the fullest. "Like a Flowing River" taught me to persevere in the pursuit of my personal goals and to never ever give up in times of challenges and last but absolutely not the least, "The Fifth Mountain" that taught me the value of having a strong faith in God and how limitless is a man's reach with a mighty faith.

"The Fifth Mountain" is one of the recent books of Paulo Coelho that I've read. The story begins in the ninth century B.C. The Phoenician Princess Jezebel wants all the prophets who renounce to bow down to the pagan god Baal to be executed. While the order from the princess is in the process, Elijah was advised by an angel of God to escape from Israel and find refuge in the land of Zarephath. Unexpectedly, he finds true love in the said land with a young widow but his new found joy is  about to disappear when his faith in God is tested through a whirlwind of unfortunate events that is cast upon him. 

The ordeal that Elijah had to face somehow resembles human beings' problems in real life. Whenever we cross paths with any difficulty, we tend to ask God why, what for and how are we going to go through this and of course we don't get any verbal answer from him and so we get hurt, not because God doesn't respond to us but because of the fact that we are in a total rut. We cry and eventually, sometimes, we find someone or something to blame knowing that doing those things can never really ease the pain. At some point we want to give up because we feel that it's hopeless. This is exactly what Elijah was feeling while he traverses the rocky paths he had to take. 

After reading the book, I realized that Elijah symbolizes every human being in this world. Each and everyone of us faces challenges everyday. Some challenges are a walk in the park but some are "Mission Impossible". Either way, we seek strength from our personal inspiration, it could be a God we believe in, a family member, music or anything that can help us go through any challenge with flying colors.

Personally, I hold on to God in my highest and lowest times. He may not answer my questions verbally but he has answered a lot of my questions so far through every trials I have faced in my life. Sometimes I would get confused and think maybe God doesn't like me so much he fills my life with relentless misery. However, in my 20 years of existence, I know for a fact that God is not destruction and that God is not misery. I personally believe that God is love and God is hope. Since God is nothing but goodness, I can safely say that behind every ugly faced ordeal is a shining light of love and hope that can sweep even the darkest corner in a person's life.