Summit Eyes

“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.”  (Mark 3:13)

I still remember the first time I experienced it.  Standing on the ridge I gazed out over the landscape and could see all the way into Kansas over 200 miles away.  The sky was pristine, the view was immaculate and breath-taking.  I had just finished a long hike up Pikes Peak, a 24,000 foot mountain in the rocky mountain range.

What I took into my soul that morning was only possible because I hiked up a mountain.  That journey was mixed with danger, fatigue, frustration and exhilaration.  It took hours to accomplish and at the end my lungs were burning with fresh, crisp oxygen.  And my hands clasped my knees as my body started to recover from the expense of such a climb.  I sucked what air I could and began to look up.  My eyes beheld an image I could only get because I was on the summit.   The highest point of the mountain, the pinnacle of what that mound of rocks could offer.  I really felt like I could fly that day (good thing I did not really try it).

I have never been the same since then.  I had been tainted with summit eyes.  Now as I travel across this great American land I compare all landscapes to that experience.  To be honest nothing has compared, I think that is why the song “America the Beautiful” was written from this mountaintop.

One of the most critical parts of climbing a mountain in Colorado is being aware of the weather.  It can change in a moment and can change based on altitude.  It could be sunny and 75 at the base and snowy and 20 at the top.  A storm can roll in within moments and people have even lost their lives because of freak storms like this.

Storms do this; they blow up out of nowhere and end up changing your day and week, modifying your monthly plans and changing the direction of your entire life.  They can be down right dangerous and life threatening.

Storms are storms, they have the ability to change your course only if you allow them that place.  We will all encounter frustrating, fatigued moments of life that are repaid by the chilly breeze of a violent storm bearing down on what is left.  You and I don’t have do expose ourselves to that storm.  We can bunker down for the moments they rage and then keep climbing.  They don’t have to keep us from the summit of life!

The experience on the summit is worth the sacrifice it takes to make it there.  Don’t give up, keep your dreams and hops alive regardless of the storm.  Keep ascending, be wise and get to that place where you stand in a clean, pure, crisp, holy place.  There is some life changing experiences waiting for your on at the top, get there!

“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,…” (Psalm 24:3-4)