At the top of Sharp Top Mountain

A Well-earned View

I think I am finally starting to recover from my trip to Sharp Top Cove… Last week we took around 50 folks (high schoolers and leaders) to the Young Life camp in Jasper, Georgia and we had an amazing time! I say that I have finally recovered because summer camp can be taxing, especially if you’re over ten years older than the campers… I had tired feet, sore muscles, a sunburn and nowhere near enough sleep, but I think I’m just about back to normal. It was all worth it though, because I was able to stand back and watch as God did amazing things in the lives of our high school friends.

One of my favorite aspects of Young Life summer camp is the hike we take mid-week. Now the hike at Sharp Top is not an incredibly difficult or long climb, but for some folks it is first time in their lives they have ever even thought about hiking. When we got to the top, the camp speaker had everyone sit down and get completely quiet for a whole minute. It was amazing. I know that in my life in this 21st century there are very few times when everything is truly quiet (especially with two babies), but for high school kids, that is an even more rare occurrence. Their lives are bombarded with noise and confusion from every direction. I am always a skeptic when we start that minute of silence on top of the mountain… I usually think, “Yeah right, there is no way hundreds of kids will sit silent for a whole minute.” But they always do. It is absolutely breathtaking to look out over what our God has made and just be in awe of His abstract art. That day we all heeded the sons of Korah who wrote, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

For me though, this hike was special because of a girl named Heather. She is a girl who has had a hard life, made some bad choices like all of us and has quite the reputation, but God has started to bring about amazing changes in her heart… I have watched Him draw Heather to Himself over the last two years through the love of her friend and leader, Emily. And this week I watched her stand up and tell over three hundred people about how she gave her life to Christ. It was awesome. Well, Heather had been dreading the hike all week long because she didn’t think she would make it up to the top, but we stayed with her and beside her all of the way up and she did make it! Several times on the way up she stopped and wanted to quit, but we didn’t let her. Then, when we could finally see the end in sight, she just got really quiet and hustled right up to the top. It was after that hike that Heather really opened up to everything at camp and started having a blast. She rappelled, rode mountain bikes and even conquered the ropes course! In all my days, I’ll never forget that hike and what God has done and is doing in Heather’s heart and mine. It kinda makes you wanna be still, doesn’t it?