DAY SEVEN – Colorado Expedition

It’s nearly impossible to believe that for all intents and purposes, the week is over. Now, we begin the long journey home.

We awoke to as we have most other mornings this week, much earlier than we had wanted to and more chipper than we’d expected. Maybe it’s the mountains, our spirit, or the load snorers.

The plan this morning was breakfast, packing, break camp, final group meeting, then departure.

There was more than a bit of solemnity to the morning. We knew that soon we would have to say our goodbyes. Larry, Lori, Brian, and Alex of New Frontiers had become more than guides to us, they had become our friends… and in many ways ours spiritual mentors. Leaving them felt a bit like leaving family. I got the impression that it was much the same for them.

We unloaded the packs that we’d carried on our backs up and down the mountain. There was something very catharctic about relieving the packs of their holdings. With each passing moment they became lighter as less burdensome. Did we really carry these? How did we ever do it?? By the time we were done they had become empty shells of their former selves. I couldn’t help but think that I, too, had been relieved of several burdens this week.

Packing the tents for the final time was enormously enjoyable. But as I looked at the patch of dirt where Skip and my tent once proudly stood I could not help but feel a twinge of sadness. I would no longer be sleeping here in this gloriously beautiful place at the foot of the now-conquered Blanca Peak.

As we packed the vans the shortness of our time here was almost tangible. The guys were moving quickly to get things ready for departure… but their heart was not really in it.

We gathered on two battered picnic tables for the final group meeting the fourteen and four would have together. Larry and Lori had a special surprise for us… a story that they had written about our week. As they began to read it the tears began to flow. I could not hold mine back and I am sure that others around the table had the same difficulty. Even now as I write about it my eyes are watering up. It was as if God had reached down from the heavens, gripped my heart with His loving and tender touch, and squeezed with just enough gentle pressure to cause my tears to flow.

I truly felt, as the read The Story to us that I was part of something greater in life… part of a larger battle. I felt as though I was a part of a larger adventure… something orchestrated by God as He held us in His hands. I felt wild at heart… as if I had conquered a huge task and completed it with superhuman strength. I felt like the men of old whom during Old Testament times did amazing things by faith… could I have been listed in Hebrews 11? I felt as if I had done something spectacular this week, something amazing… something that I could not have done without God’s help.

I often say about Mark’s Gospel that Christ was trying to teach his disciples that they must do what they could not out of strength that they did not have. This week, that was what Christ was trying to help me to understand and practice: I must do things that I cannot do out of strength that I do not have!

I leave you with the Biblical passage that became our theme for this week and then I leave you a copy of The Story.