What I Learned from Summit

I will always look back on my trip to Summit Ministries in Colorado as the event that started me down the road to adulthood. It changed a lot of things for me. Some changes were immediate, but some of them took years for me to even notice. Like a tiny seed that doesn’t even begin to grow until the conditions are right. Then a little rain comes down, the soil softens, and suddenly there’s a beautiful flower in your life that seems to have come from nowhere. Here are some of those flowers.

The first thing I learned from summit was how to face fear and push past it. I know this may sound kind of crazy, but I don’t think I ever did something truly on my own until I went to Colorado. I was terrified to get on that plane alone and fly out into the unknown. What if I missed a connecting flight? What if I couldn’t find the bus to take me to Summit? How do I find my luggage once I’m in Colorado? There were so many questions without answers. If I had been given a choice whether to leave or stay the morning that I left I’m certain I would have chosen the “safe” thing to do and stayed home. However, I was in a position where I hadn’t left myself a choice, and so I stepped out into the unknown. It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time, and I have discovered along the way that this is how it should be. If we aren’t regularly facing fears, then we have allowed ourselves to lounge around in the comfort zone of life. It sure is cozy, but it sure isn’t living!

After pushing past the fear, my adventure started almost as soon as I got on the plane. I saw two beautiful girls around my age on the plane. I thought they were a bit older, but I couldn’t tell for sure. When I arrived in Colorado, I overheard them talking and realized that they were on their way to Summit as well. Karen and Sarah ended up talking with me on the bus ride from the airport, but at the time I was painfully shy (as most of you probably remember). Any way, as soon as we got to Summit they were flocked by other guys that were a lot more confident. I spent the next few days keeping an eye on them from across the room and saying “Hi” when I got the chance. After a few more days they started spending more time talking to me and hanging out with me. That was when I realized that sincere, nice, and shy still beats confident and annoying! It never went beyond a friendship, but it was still a big boost to my self-confidence to realize that being myself was okay!

The adventure continued the entire time I was there. It was like a giant social experiment with me right in the middle. Of course there was the trip to the Garden of the Gods, and the white water rafting, but I actually learned more from taking a trip to the Laundromat. Again, it probably sounds stupid, but I was all up in knots about how I was going to get some clothes washed. That’s when I learned that there are always other people in life around you that need the same things you do. Keep your ears open and you’ll find help from them some days, and other days they’ll find help from you. I was able to tag along with some other guys and I just followed their lead. Presto – clean clothes. New challenges can be scary, but they’re seldom as difficult to overcome as you think.

Then there were the classes. They taught me to learn to question what you read, hear, and watch. We all have a brain for a reason. We should collect as much information as possible from as many different sources as possible on any given subject. Then take some time to digest what we’ve learned and finally make some decisions on what we really believe about the subject. Of course, our decisions will be based on our worldview, which is another thing that Summit taught me.

Everyone has a view of the world around them. It’s developed from what you’ve read, what you learned in school, what you’ve seen on the news, the movies you’ve watched, and the principles you were taught by the people in your life. Well, at least that’s the raw material for your world view. What comes next is the most important thing – what you do with the raw material. Most people just take the path of least resistance – they accept everything they’ve seen, heard, and been taught as the truth. They let someone, everyone else define the way they look at the world - the lens through which everything else is focused. What an incredibly dangerous thing to do!! Why would we let the most important decisions we make every day be influenced to such a large extent by the world around us. In case you haven’t noticed, the world we live in is a hailstorm of negativity and half-truths. Summit taught me not to accept everything the way most of the world does. Develop a world-view based on the word of God, and let that be the foundation for your life, because the storms will come.

And the storms are not random events… There really are forces working against us, and if we don’t do anything about it they will succeed. Summit taught me that we all need to stand up for what we believe even when it’s unpopular. We need to question everything and continually point people back to the truth – God is real and so is Satan. If we aren’t living for one, than we are living for the other. There is no middle ground. So, take a side (the right one), grab a weapon (the word of God), and join the battle. We already know that we ultimately win, but don’t we want to kick some butt while we’re in the battle? I do, and that leads me to the flower that has taken the longest to bloom.

The most precious thing I learned, and the one that has taken my whole life so far to realize is that we only get one shot at life. That’s it! Am I going to live a small life of insignificance? Am I going to have a nice suburban family with a nice job and nice friends? Am I going to occupy my time with small concerns? Am I going to be remembered as a nice guy? My answer is to that is the same as John Eldredge’s in “Wild at Heart” – No Way!! I want to be a world changer. I want to make an impact that spans generations. I want to go to my grave with thousands of people hating me. Yep, you read that right. I want to stand up as a beacon of truth in the world, and that is one thing that no one can remain indifferent to. It will either change you or really tick you off, and either one is fine with me.

So, I’ve made the choice to pursue a life of significance. I have a plan and I’m working toward it every single day. I have an awesome family backing me up, and some fantastic mentors guiding me down the path. But most importantly, I have God on my side and He has promised that “all things are possible to him that believes (Mark 9:23).” I’ve just decided to be someone that believes.

So thank you Grandpa and Grandma for sending all of us to Summit!! It must have been a very large investment for you, but the return will certainly be infinite and eternal. You were the original world changers in my life, and I’m so proud to be a part of your family, your legacy. I love you both!

Mark