Too High to Explain

The title is the slogan I saw on one of the two t-shirt options at the gift shop at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I think I would have bought it if it had said "Too Hard to Explain." Climbing Kili WAS the hardest thing I've ever done - physically and, perhaps, mentally. I found my limit and then went beyond it. I'm glad I'm at a stage in life such that I will never be pressured to do it again. I have no son coming of age who might want his dad to go up with him. I will be far too old to be challenged by either of my grandsons by the time they come of age. When they're old enough to do Kili, their dad is the one who will face that challenge. Neither my wife nor my daughters will ever ask me to take them there. So, I'm safe from the curtain call. BUT, I did do it! No matter how fat and lazy I get in the years that remain, I climbed to the highest point of Mt. Kilimanjaro. 19,341 feet AMSL. Additionally, I came all the way back down - no small feat either. And, it was grand! Did I mention that I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro?

I've been searching my mind and heart for something profound to write about this unique experience. Surely there was some soul purifying aspect that can serve to touch hard hearts. Surely I felt some intense sense of nearest to my God or my own inner-being. I was asked, by a dear friend who had wanted to make the climb, "What did you feel? What emotion stands out as you think about reaching the summit?" Wow! That's a hard question. I was glad we made it. Howz that for an emotion for the summit? It had looked doubtful for a while and I was really really glad we made it. I was anxious to get the pictures we wanted to make at the top. Documentation of the summit seemed important - as if others would need proof. But, I think my strongest feeling (and one that has made me kinda mellow about the whole thing) was/is a feeling of unworthiness. When I think of all the people in the world and the indescribable misery in which most people live and die I am struck by the privileged life I live. I know that the opportunity to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro was a gift from God. I know God does that sort of thing for His people. I know He wants us to experience life's joys because He delights in blessing us. I know those things. But, I still struggle that I should be so blessed. It was truly a time of purifying the soul. It was a time of exhilaration in the midst of God's beautiful creation. It was reveling in the abundant healthiness of the body God has given. It was so many wonderful things. None of them deserved. All of them so very humbling. Utter thankfulness is the only proper response to being at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

I have many stories with which I could bore you readers. Stories about the climb. Side stories about people we met and drew courage from and gave courage to. I'm not going to write them here, though, because I know they would go mostly unread. I've written them in my Journal - there too they will go mostly unread. They are preserved and will not be forgotten. But, here I'll only note that God allowed me to place a small stone on top of Kili in memory of a young Englishman who drown and who's mother requested that the stone be carried up and placed at the summit in his memory. Here I'll note that a shofar was blown from the summit of Kili to the north and the south and the east and the west by a missionary who had deep sorrows washed away from his heart by the declaration of the shofar. I'll note that a 63 year-old German declared that his grandchildren will stop calling him whatever they've called him before and from now on he'll be known as "Grandpa Kili." It was the greatest terrible thing I've ever done. It has made me humble and given me reason to boast. It was far too expensive and worth much more than it cost. I would do it again, in a heartbeat, but never again in this lifetime.

Praise God for making Kili. Praise Him for giving me the opportunity to climb it. Praise Him for giving me the resources to climb. And, praise God for giving me the strength to climb. It is great joy to watch God do things in your life. He is worthy of praise.