When you part from your friend, you grieve not: For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
- Kahlil Gibran
One thing I've heard since coming home is that many of us on the trip are already missing each other, wishing we could go back, wondering what to do next. That is a normal thing for sure; after an experience like we had -- particularly, a spiritually intense one -- the heart longs to return to where it all happened, to experience those same feelings. Here is where it turns for us -- I spoke to the kids about the tide turning, that they would come home and if that same Holy Spirit freakiness came along, things would be different. It was not Colorado, not the YMCA, not the mountains, not even the remarkable Ricky Hawks that made this trip so amazing. It was the presence of Christ, manifest in each one of us to the world around us and to each other, that made the Summit trip what it was. That Spirit lives in you, here and now. My challenge is to turn it loose -- on your family, your friends, the people you meet. Turn to prayer first! Open your Bible, read it nightly. Ask, when you hear a great Godly truth -- "So What?" Buckle up, friends. This is the beginning of the trip up to the mountain, not the end.
