Gift of Perspective

For over a decade, I've grown more in love with the mountains.  This began the first time my wife and I treked to Winter Park, Colorado to ski fresh powder instead of the ice found in our midwestern home state.  

I'll never forget that view.  Standing above 10,000 ft, and then plummeting down the frozen, hard packed snow at the top, only to take a breather when we enter the fluffy stuff in the trees.  Multiple trips have been made back to that spot, and many others like in in the Rockies.  Each time we are seeking that rush, but for me, that moment of standing on the top, with my tips pointed down, brings everything back into perspective for me.  

We no longer live in the midwest, making Wyoming our home, with the mountians a constant view from our front door.  Each and every day, like John Muir so elequantly stated, "the mountians are calling, and I must go."  

Last weekend I answered the call, and the one to chase elk too, and spent several hours quietly making my way through the trees.  I saw signs of the elusive ghost, but no meat was put in my freezer.  It could have been a frustrating morning, except for the gift of perspective found in the view.  

25 miles away from where I stood and 3000 feet lower in elevation, is my home.  My wife, my kids, the church I shepherd, the community I love, and countless individual stories that are all part of God's overarching story of himself.  Sometimes I forget that I'm not the center of the universe and that all things aren't about me.  

God gives me the gift of perspective each time I'm in the mounatians.  

Jesus often withdrew to pray and rest after long days of entering into the story of his rebellious creation.  He was constantly seeking to connect with his father in Heaven, and to regain perspective.  

Mark 1:35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed

John 6:15 Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Where do you gain perspective?
Where do you connect with the father who loves you more than you can fathom?
When do you feel the deepest connection to the story Jesus is writing through you?

My prayer is that you'll stake a claim on the life giving place that grants God Glorifying Perspectibe to your soul.  

Go there.
Be with God.
Let the overflow guide every step.
Then return often until the final day is upon you.