The Trek Adventure

My last trip with our youth up on a mountain was in the summer of '07. We had a rough trip that year, a long summit (Princeton isn't one of the easier mountains), multiple trips to the emergency room (yes they recognized us), and it was my first major trip away after Claire was born.

This would certainly be a different trip. We had a smaller group of youth with a large number of adults for a trip like this. We decided not to do white water rafting and instead went to the Great Sand Dunes NP. It was tremendous! Extreme heat and overall exhaustion kept us from spending a ton of time, but what a great experience.

Then we drove to the TEAM Ascend property. Sitting right at the base of Mt. Elbert the highest in Colorado, it is a beautiful setting to begin the week and get focused on who Christ is and why we are there to climb a mountain. 

Our focus this week was on the life of Peter. Two main scriptures stood out to me, and I have continued to ponder them over the last two weeks.

²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” ¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep." (John 21:15-17)

Much time has been spent and will be spent explaining each of these verses.  You can think on them and pray about them for a very long time before you might begin to get it.  But I ask this question:

"What will you do about them?"

If you really love Him, there is action involved.  Here are the verbs involved: deny, take up, follow, lose, save, love, feed, take care. When we begin to see our faith in these terms we can't help but to act on them.  It seems like James had something to say about faith and works...

Anyway, it was an incredible trip with lots of great discussion, laughs and fun. Looking forward to more time with these incredible people.