Tag: Colorado

  • Lasting As Snow

    Lasting As Snow

    In the small New England town I grew up in, winters brought an abundance of snow. I loved digging out an igloo from piles of snow left at the end of our driveway left by snowplows or packing snow for a sledding trail on the hills of our neighborhood. But this year, an international snow sculpting competition in Breckinridge, Colorado, took snow art to a stunning level. Each sculpting team worked with a 25-ton block of pressed snow that measured 12’x12’x15’ high. Teams worked for 92 continuous hours to complete the one-week display, not only for global recognition, but also to maximize ideal snow conditions in the cold climate of Breckinridge Ski Resort. The faces of many who lingered to watch and vote were full of wonder and joy. Snow takes on many forms—snow for skiing, snow for sledding, snow for sculpting (like the corn cob above sculpted by India), snow for watching … and the metaphor of snow that represents how God’s love and purpose is directed to our lives as delivered by His word (see video).

    The Treasure: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish …so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV)

    If you’d rather read than watch the video, here’s the full video transcript:

    Snow travelled in a one-way direction from heaven to earth and settled here along the Arkansas River in Buena Vista, Colorado. Like snow, God’s Word travels in a one-way direction too and settles in our hearts causing us to flourish. It’s alive and has power to accomplish His purpose to transform us so rivers of life can flow from us. That sounds like real abundance to me.

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  • Inverted Mountain

    Inverted Mountain

    Even a steep descent to the lowest place can transform the trajectory of our lives when we take the difficult journey with God. The premise of my book entitled Rediscover the Dance is that valleys of weeping yield tears that can become replenishing springs and a catalyst for post-traumatic growth (Psalm 84:5-6). In Chapter 9 entitled “Valley Momentum” we explore how putting Three Rs into action can keep us from getting stuck in valleys of weeping.

    1. Relinquish self-dependence for God dependence
    2. Remember God’s words
    3. Rely on God for outcome.

    Riding a gondola over the steepest part of a mountain in Colorado reminded me to thank God on the joyful heights and to trust Him in the scary chasms.

    The Treasure: When life feels impossible we may think, It’s over, But God says, We’ve only just begun.1

    1. Dawn Linton, Rediscover the Dance (Koehler Books, 2025), 138

    If you’d rather read than watch the video, here’s the full video transcript:

    I’m on one of the ski slopes at Beaver Creek in Colorado. The interesting thing about this mountain is that some people call it an inverted mountain which means the easier slopes (called green slopes) are at the top and the most difficult slopes are at the bottom. So, those of us who are more cautious skiers like myself take a gondola halfway up the mountain over the difficult slopes. Then we ski over to another chair lift and take that chair lift out of sight over to the top of the mountain which is about nine thousand feet. And so, we ski around on the top half of the mountain as long as we want to – just up and down the most beautiful and gentle green slopes. Then we get back on the gondola and come back into the valley over the difficult parts. As in life, it’s a lot easier to be at a higher elevation emotionally, spiritually, physically and to just be able to really enjoy the ease of life. Thank God we have ways to come down and tools for us to be in the valley as well. But thankfully today I don’t have to ski down a black diamond slope to get to the bottom where I head home in just a little while.

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  • After the Storm (Hidden Beauty Part 2)

    After the Storm (Hidden Beauty Part 2)

    The flurry of snow scenes in the last couple of blogs reveals my love of winter. I last blogged from a mountain trail in a white-out storm in Colorado.

    I returned to that trail one year later (see video) and paused in the silence. Its beauty reminded me of St. Augustine’s writing on how nature points to God. Check out this passage of his from the Confessions:

    I asked the earth, and it answered. “I am not He.” … I asked the sea and the deeps and the creeping things, and they answered, “We are not your God, seek higher.” I asked the winds that blow, and the whole air with all that is in it answered, “I am not God.” I asked the heavens and the sun, the moon, the stars, and they answered, “Neither are we God whom you seek.” And I said to all the things and the throng about the gateways of the senses: “Tell me of my God since you are not He. Tell me something about Him.” And they cried out in a great voice: “He made us.”

    The Treasure:
    Creation is God’s craftsmanship on display for us to enjoy. It invites us to ponder His majesty and give Him our hearts.

    If you’d rather read than watch the video, here’s the full video transcript:

    One year ago this month I was standing in this exact place on Morning Star Trail in snowshoes. If you remember it was a blizzard, and I said how things can look gray all around us—but that there’s beauty if we were to see beyond the gray of the storm. I just wanted to show you what it looks like on a beautiful, blue-sky day in the middle of the Aspen trees at 9,600 feet elevation with snowcapped mountains all around. So, a whole year has gone by, and maybe one year ago you were in the gray in a storm and hopefully you’ve come to some new beginnings this year. I know I have and I’m very grateful to have some of that trek up the path behind me and to be able to look out over beauty. We can’t be in the beauty all of the time, but when we are, it sure is nice to enjoy every moment of it.

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  • Hidden Beauty

    Hidden Beauty

    I wish I could go back and talk to the woman who said, “I feel guilty because I doubt God.” Would I give her ten top reasons to trust God when she can’t see to take her next step? Although there are many more than ten, that wouldn’t be my first response.

    I think I’d say, “I doubt too.”

    I’d tell her about the time a white-out storm blocked my view and how scared I was to put one step in front of the other. I’d tell her how, in time, the storm became the catalyst that helped me deal with my doubt.

    My ninety-six-year-old grandfather, Harry the Ancient, once told me, “The first hundred years are the hardest.” He lingered with me in that reality before giving me the second half of ancient wisdom, “But God is good and can be fully trusted with your life.”

    My grandfather’s words began to awaken me from spiritual amnesia to see the evidence of God and to begin shifting from doubt, into a posture of trust.

    Someday I will thank that woman for her honesty. Her words gave me a visual—God embracing her with His left arm and opening His right palm for her to deposit all of her doubt—and the guilt that went with it. What a beautiful picture.

    This reminds me of a snowshoe trail my friend and I hiked in a white-out storm on a mountain in Colorado (see video below). There was no color that day—only gray. But when I returned to that trail one year later the pristine view took my breath away. In the white-out days of life, there is always more going on than we can see as we shift from doubt to trust.

    The Treasure: “Honest doubt sends us on a quest for what is true and real, for that which we cannot only give intellectual assent, but can entrust our very lives to.”
    (from Your God is Too Safe, by Mark Buchanan)

    If you’d rather read than watch the video, here’s the full video transcript:

    Hey! I’m out here in the cold weather on Morning Star Snowshoe Trail in Colorado. You’ll notice behind me maybe some skiers coming down…and then there’s this snow shoe trail. The thing that occurs to me today is – sometimes life can look all gray. Actually, if we could see—if it were clear, there’s an amazing beauty all around us up here. But it’s so gray, all we can see is the snow, the trees near us, and just a little bit in front of us. And that’s the way it is in life. Sometimes we plod along with one foot in front of the other on snow shoes, and sometimes we can be like skiers that are coming down—whisking down knowing exactly where they’re going. So wherever we are in our lives—whether we’re plodding along one step at a time, or whether we’re whisking along knowing exactly where we’re going, it’s worth it to walk every step with God. See you next time.

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