I Can Hardly Wait
Karl, on the Panorama Trail, 2008
Tomorrow it will be May…and that means the 5th annual Yosemite Summit will finally be upon me. And while I say it every year, I need it this year more than ever. It’s been an extremely busy year. You can tell partly from the lack of posts to this blog! I’m glad the Summit filled up early, as I’ve not even had to time to promote it. I’ve written many times on this site why I do this Summit, this UNconference, but it bears repeating. I do this Summit because I’m lousy at “slowing down.” I’m kinda like a locomotive: I gradually keep speeding up throughout the year. If I don’t STOP, I get going too fast. Yosemite Summit is my annual “Spiritual Pit Stop.” It’s when I reflect, pray, listen, meditate, and reconnect with God in a way and depth not possible throughout the year. And I invite a small, select group of men to join me. It is healing. It is refreshing. It is renewing. It is rejuvenating. It is refocusing. It is redefining. It is just what I need every year. Without it, I would get very cranky and empty. (If you’ve never read: Running on Empty: Contemplative Spirituality for Overachievers, you should.)
This year one of my regular Summiteers is leading his own retreat the week before mine, so Yosemite Summit is reproducing itself. Even more men are going to be unplugging from normal busy life and ministry to reconnect with God and realign themselves with the way things ought to be.
I’m really excited that for the first time in three years, Glacier Point Road is already open. This means that for only the second time since starting the Summit, our guys will get to hike the spectacular Panorama Trail! We did this hike on Year One. I skipped it on Year Two for variety sake, opting instead to do some other hikes and planning to do it on Year Three, but Glacier Point was closed. Then last year, Year Four, it was closed again! Of course, there are plenty of amazing hikes in Yosemite, but I’ve been dying to do this hike again, as it covers the entire perimeter of the Valley and ends by descending the Mist Trail (which we still did on those other years hiking up, and then down via the John Muir Trail past Clark’s Point.)
If you are a man in ministry (I no longer limit the Summit to children’s pastors, by the way) and this Summit resonates with you, please prayerfully consider joining me next year. I open registration in September, and it fills up in just a few months. So be watching for the information in August and for registration to open in September. While it is open to any man in ministry, is is especially for those who are worn out, hurting, running on empty,or going through a difficult time in ministry. It was born out of that kind of season in my life. So I’ve been there.
It is a brotherhood of men hiking together and learning together and praying together and growing together.
ALL FOR ONE – and ONE FOR ALL!
Maybe I’ll be hiking with you next year?