Imagine climbing up a steep mountain slope.
The soft soil and slippery gravel seem to work against you, just barely failing to ensnare you as you keep your footing, thanks to your new hiking shoes. Rocks trickle over other rocks as you ascend, all the while you hope none succeed at hitting their mark. Two trees appear amidst the plenty with a perfect distance for an Eno. Sliding around in the still somewhat unstable landscape, you manage to set up a tight, red hammock. Finally slip into your taut, bouncy swing. You can relax.
Looking out at your solitude view for the next hour and a half, it’s painted with brown barks, green leaves, distant yellow Aspens, and cloudy mountain tops. A breeze hurriedly and noisily blows through the valley. The branches and their leaves ecstatically sway as they are impacted by this large, powerful, and invisible force. And the whooshing sound like no other as it closes in fast blowing you, your hammock, and your two trusty trees.
Would a breeze be as audibly pleasing without the help of the trees? Would the trees be as joyful without the help of the jostling wind? Without the structure of the mountains to guide the breeze through the valley would the orchestra of noise be as magnificent?
Mountains don’t move and breezes are common most valley days. However, trees don’t always have their leaves. Seasons change and their once beautiful colors fall. The trees now find it hard to be joyful as they can’t feel or see the breeze as easily as they could before. They aren’t being jostled anymore.
Would the trees then doubt the breeze existed in the first place?
God still blows like a breeze and our guidance mountains still stay by our sides, but when the seasons change in our lives it can seem like He’s left. Not because he has, but only because we’re in a season of winter. Of course, it’s hard. And of course, you’re not the only one in a cold season either. That is why we come to Summit Semester. To find community. To find a place where the winter isn’t as harsh and the breeze blows so strongly thanks to its faithful mountains that we cannot ignore.
Maybe your leaves aren’t sprouting, or you don’t feel the breeze of God where you are, but that doesn’t give you a reason to doubt that the breeze never existed in the first place. It just means you need to move into the valley and surround yourself with mountains.
“Although the winter may bring the whole world to its knees, the spring shall return with its fruit.” – Send Me A Peach from Over the Garden Wall
By Joshua Bowman a 20-year-old man with an overwhelming desire to love God and love others. He loves people, rock climbing, and deep, late-night conversations. After hugging with somber goodbyes, he left his small town in North Carolina, excited to meet his new family for the next months. In the year before semester 2021, God flipped his life upside down and forced him to come to terms with the idols he had let eat his life away for years. After some vital sifting on God’s part, Summit Semester seemed like the perfect way to learn more about this relationship with God he finally decided to start taking it seriously. Loving God seemed easy, but now he needed to love others, and what better way to do that than be around them every day without technological distractions and intentional conversations. A perfect getaway to change bad habits and start new ones in the beautiful Colorado mountains.