All posts in Mountains

  • My Mystical Encounter with Wonder


    My Mystical Encounter with Wonder
    Brian Zahnd

    (This mystical encounter with wonder occurred twenty years ago today. It was life-changing.)

    Art is often an attempt to recapture the wonder that is in the world when seen through the eyes of innocence, the eyes of a child. Wonder is so much more than empty amusement or an evening’s entertainment. Wonder is an essential ingredient if life is to be made livable. Wonder is the cure — the cure for life-killing boredom. Wonder is the drug — the natural drug without which people may turn to narcotic drugs. Sure, most people bravely soldier on without wonder, and even do so without drug addictions and self-destructive behavior. But is that the point of life? To soldier on long after the thrill of living is gone? That’s not life — that’s life with all the wonder crushed out of it and compressed to mere existence. Wonder is what we’ve lost. Wonder is what we miss. Wonder is what we want. Wonder is our hidden Narnia into which we long to step and explore.

    Years ago I was thinking about these things while on a family vacation in the Rocky Mountains. During our long hikes I would muse on the role of wonder in finding satisfaction in life. One evening I found myself alone at sundown in the high country on a ridge well above tree line. A thunderstorm had passed through a little earlier and was now rumbling off to the east. What was before me as I looked to the west was a masterpiece sunset over the Never Summer Mountains. I wanted to thoroughly absorb the beauty that was on full display before me, so I sat down on the alpine tundra in that numinous world which the naturalist Ann Zwingler describes as “a land of contrast and incredible intensity, where the sky is the size of forever and the flowers are the size of a millisecond.” I remained in solitude until I was joined by seven bull elk who ambled up the ridge to where I was sitting. As the elk grazed they were aware of my presence, but entirely unconcerned. Then, just as the orange orb of the sun was touching the snowcapped peaks of the Never Summer Mountains, the largest of the elk drew closer, looked at me, and then lifted his head in such a way that his massive antlers formed a perfect frame for the majestic sunset in the distance. It was an encounter with such rare beauty that I can only describe it as sacred. Wonder rushed into my soul and I felt the full thrill of being alive. I prayed — “God, I want to live my whole life in a constant state of wonder.” Then God spoke to me.
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  • God’s Love In Granite

    Mills

    God’s Love In Granite
    Brian Zahnd

    The Bible opens with a creation narrative and the constant refrain is the goodness of it all. In the first chapter of Genesis God declares every day as good. The third day (the day life begins) is declared good twice. On the sixth day of creation we are told, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

    The ancient Hebrew account of the entire goodness of creation stands in stark contrast to the pagan creation stories where the world comes into existence amidst the chaos of a great struggle between good and evil. In the rival myths of the ancient world, evil plays a role in creation. The first great revelation of the Hebrew scriptures is that the universe flows entirely from the goodness of God; evil played no part in God’s good creation.
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  • God Is Love. God Is Love.

    Sunset from the Top

    God is Love. God is Love.
    Brian Zahnd

    The topography of biblical witness is full of peaks and valleys, mountains and plains. The Bible is not flat terrain. The honest reader of the Bible readily admits that the Levitical prohibition against eating shellfish does not reach the same heights as the lofty Christology in Colossians. As we look at the great peaks of inspired biblical witness, none soar higher than the twin peaks of divine revelation given to us by the Apostle John.

    “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. … We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4:8, 16)

    Soaring above everything else the Bible has to say about God are these twin peaks found in John’s first epistle: God is love. God is love.

    The Arapaho Indians called Longs Peak and Mount Meeker Nesótaieus, meaning “two guides.” The two peaks of this towering massif are useful for orientation when traveling in the front range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, just as the two peaks of 1 John 4:8 and 4:16 are invaluable when navigating our way through the Bible. When the aged apostle put quill to papyrus to tell his readers that God is love (twice), and that to know love is to know God, and that to live in love is to live in God, he was making a daring move…and he dared to do it!
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  • No walk in the park

  • I’m Not Here

    I’m not inside your computer.

    I’m not in cyber space.

    I’m not here.

    I’m in the mountains with the whole family.

    So no blog. Just a quote, a book, and a song. Read more

  • Highlands


    Philip in the highlands

    Peri, Philip and I spend Memorial Day well above treeline.

    My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I roam.

    Highlands. I love this song. It’s long. 16 minutes and 32 seconds. So slow down and enjoy life.

    Enjoy Life. That’s what I’ll preach on Friday night. When we return from the highlands.

    My heart’s in the Highlands, can’t see any other way to go.

    Blessings,

    BZ

    Here’s the tune…
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  • Planet Romonapa

    “No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied—
    it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.” -Ansel Adams

    It’s that time of year again. Time for our annual summer sojourn on Planet Romonapa. That’s what we call our beloved Rocky Mountain National Park. We’re in shape and ready to hike, climb, backpack and camp in the high country. I look forward to our annual family vacation in Rocky Mountain National Park all year long. It restores my soul in a way I cannot fully explain.

    Here are some pictures from our vacation on Planet Romonapa last year.
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  • Igloo Ed and Loch Vale in a Gale

    Peri, Philip and I are in the mountains for three days this week. We’ll fly back home tomorrow. We went into the mountains on snowshoe hikes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The weather has been bitterly cold, but we came to be in the mountains, so in the mountains we have been.

    On Tuesday we met up with our friend Igloo Ed. Ed is a winter hiking and camping legend in these parts. He reminds me of Gandalf. He knows these mountains like the back of his hand — he’s truly amazing. He took us on a hike by a route known only to himself — it’s as if he knows every tree…maybe he does.

    When we began our hike it was 12 below zero and windy. Cold! But we had a great hike.

    Here’s some pictures:

    Igloo Ed

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  • A Christian in Christendom

    What does it mean to be a Christian in America today?

    What does it mean to be a Christian in a 21st century Christendom?

    How are we to be Christians who are countercultural, transcendent and subversive in a quasi-Christian culture?

    What do you do when Christendom and Babylon are woven together in a single culture?

    How are we to be authentic Christ-followers in a nation where 88% of the people identify themselves as Christian?
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