Climbing Mountains

{me throwing what I know on Mt. Princeton!}

I drafted this post this week while I was in Colorado. The YoungLife in my area went to Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, Colorado for a week to serve and get the camp ready for the hundreds of kids that would come to camp over the course of the summer. It was a wonderful week and I'm sure I will have more posts about it soon!

Today (Tuesday) while at camp, I think I had the biggest Jesus moment ever.

 

I describe Jesus moments as those times when Jesus is just so real to you and His presence is so clear. They are really just wonderful and humbling and incredible.

It happened as I set off on a hike to reach this point that overlooked the camp and had three wooden crosses to mark it. 

The point is pretty high up, and we were told the hike took an hour. The only reason we actually got to go was because it had snowed a ton and we couldn't work outside anymore and we had the day off.

So some friends -- Laurel, Dymond, Alex, Emily, Madison and I set out on this hike. We were given directions -- follow the path to the ridge runners, and then turn left and follow the path. We followed what we thought was the trail for quite awhile. 

About half an hour in, it began to get difficult. We were so high up and the air was so thin. already being sick, it was so hard to breathe. We didn't really plan out this hike, so we really had no water except for the snow that had fallen almost to our knees.

So, as if hiking a mountain wasn't difficult to begin with, the snow meant we almost had to do high knees just to walk for it. At this point, we were talking about verses that were getting us through the hike and motivating us to get to the top. 

 

I thought of Philippians 4:13 -- kind of cliché but I always keep that verse in my back pocket when I need encouragement to do hard things. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

 

So we kept on going, and I don't even know how many times I repeated, "Guys we have to be almost there, lets keep going!"

 

Over an hour had passed, and we were beginning to see the tree line and we eventually reached what was basically the top of the mountain.

 

We kind of took a breather at this point, and we were totally above the clouds, which were basically covering the air and we couldn't actually see the view.

 

Eventually the clouds clear, and Alex says, "hey guys...the crosses are WAAAY down there..."

 

and we all run to the edge and look down. We had definitely missed the crosses by thousands of feet.

 

Later we find out that we had actually climbed the real mountain...Mount Princeton that had an elevation of over 14,000 feet. And I did it in rain boots!

 

Once we stopped freaking out about how far we were from where we meant to be, we took a bunch of pictures of course, and laughed a lot.

 

After that, we prayed and talked about something that is so simple but kind of blew my mind!

 

Similar to our situation on the mountain, I think in life we often times have a plan of where we want to be and even a plan on how to get there easily.

 

However, most of the time, God's plan isn't what we expect. So, we end up going on a journey that might be harder, or difficult. But, once we reach the place that God wants us to be, we realize that it is actually a thousand times better and way more beautiful, just like we realized when we had literally hiked a whole mountain instead of to a clearing in the woods.

 

It was such a great reminder that I should surrender my control and my plan for my life, because I know that God is going to take me on a journey that is way better than I could ever plan or ever possibly imagine for myself.

 

I'm so thankful for moments like this that I can feel so small in the midst of the beauty of God's creation and He feels so big and powerful and wonderful. Tonight I am resting in the peace of God's perfect plan for me and His incredible power.

xoxo,
Kenzie