So I have changed my mind, and I am going to make a goal to climb Mt Adams next year. I have been thinking about it, and I don’t think my bicycle riding, even though almost 4,000 miles, did enough for my cardiovascular, which was my problem. I am going to make running my new main exercise and run several half marathons, maybe even a full marathon. I also am going to climb much earlier in the year so I can climb on the snow as much as possible. Climbing on the rocks was a “killer” this last effort, and with my major balance issues with my parkinson’s I was always fearful of falling. Walking on the snow with crampons will be much less of an issue. I haven’t talked to my son-in-law yet to see if he wants to climb with me. I might have burned him out on this last trip, but if he opts out of this amazing potential for adventure I have other son-in-laws I can ask.

I know down in the depth of my “knower” that I can do this. I know what the issues were and that I can do something about them and conquer this past failure in my life. If anybody wants to be apart of this adventure let me know. Wow, I am getting excited and energized already.

Today I am thinking of all the reasons why I didn’t make it to the top of Adams; I should have done more running to get in shape, I should have lost more weight, I should have taken a lighter sleeping bag, I should have just tried harder and not been so quick to quit, I should have climbed earlier in the summer.

There is a place for honest self-evaluation in order to improve so as to accomplish goals previously failed because of personal growth. And then there are those goals, quite often they are BHAG’s, that I should just move on from. This climb was my third attempt in five years to make it to the top so it wasn’t a quick decision looking for the easy way. Each attempt was less successful than the previous one so I obviously wasn’t getting closer to my goal. Because of the recent 4,000 mile bicycle trip I was sure that I was in the physical shape to make it. The altitude was a major factor more than my being physically in shape. How do I manage a failed goal so as not to get discouraged?

1. I find as many things to be thankful for as I can. This event had lots of very positive things so being positive and grateful was easy.

2. Most of the time failure to accomplish a goal is because of things I can’t control. My Parkinson’s and a decreased ability to manage higher altitudes were the major factors in my failure. A growing list of limitations in my life because of age are a given. I control as much as I can, but there is much that I can’t. I don’t let those things discourage me. That is life, adjust, rejoice, and make some new goals.

3. I don’t let myself envy or be jealous of other people’s successes. Rejoicing with others for their accomplishments is a key part of humility.

4. I set new goals that are similar but achievable. I had already set a goal to run a half marathon on Thanksgiving day, but I am now going to work extra hard to accomplish it. I want to use failure to motivate me not discourage me. There is the risk that I won’t be able to run a half marathon, then I will make a goal to run a 10K.

5. A key to continuing to set hard and challenging goals is to work at developing self-compassion when I fail. There is a difference between excuse-making and justification that encourages poor effort and discipline from self-compassion. I want to continue to dream big, aspire to greatness, and bear much fruit for God, but in the process I want to have fun and enjoy life.

My son-in-law and I left timberline of Mt Adams at noon on Thursday, August 11th and got to the “lunch counter” at 5:00 pm. The “lunch counter” is a place on the South side of Mt Adams at approximately the 9,000 foot level where there is a fairly large relatively flat spot. The wind keeps the snow blown off of this spot, and over the years climbers have picked up and stacked rocks in half circle wind breaks. The half circle of rocks is the perfect size to set a tent up in, and most of them have sandy bottoms in them. I haven’t counted them but my guess is that there are over a hundred of these handy tent spots for climbers who want to split their climb into two days.

Climbing from where we parked the truck to the “lunch counter” I was so slow that Kyle went on ahead of me, picked a spot for our camp, set up the tent, and then came back to where I was struggling, and carried my pack the rest of the way. Our camp was a very nice camp with a great view. Kyle brought his tent which was plenty big enough for both of us. We ate our freeze dried dinners, I had lasagna, and then we went to bed on our blow up mattresses and sleeping bags. I slept like a baby even with the wind blowing and slapping the tent around.

I struggled so much with the climb up to our camp that I decided not to attempt the rest of the climb. I kept getting dizzy and struggled not to fall over while climbing. I wanted to make it to the top one more time, but it will have to be in my dreams. Even though it was a major challenge I had a great time on the climb up to the “lunch counter” and the camping experience. Camped right next to us was five Dads and five kids who were all between 10 and 14 years of age. They didn’t plan on climbing any higher, just climbing to there, camping, and playing in the snow.

Kyle left our camp at 6:00 am this morning and climbed to the “false summit” at about the 11,000 foot level, and started getting major dizzy from the altitude, so turned around and came back to camp. We packed up camp and went down the Mountain and drove home and I am now sitting in my recliner writing this. Kyle is young and will have more chances to make it to the top, and may have this time if he hadn’t done that extra climbing helping me make it as far as I did. But I gave it my best shot and I am now officially retired from climbing anything but the stairs to the second floor in our house.

When I say I love you to Patty, to those in our church and to God, I am not saying I have warm, fuzzy feelings toward them. I am saying I love you as a statement of commitment, specific commitments. I love you is saying “I will. “

An additional meaning of “I love you,” is “I want a relationship with you.” God loved the world so He sent Jesus to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven and live with God forever. The bottom line in all that God did was making it possible for us to be sons and daughters of God forever.

To say “I love you,” is to say, “I will,” but it also means, “I want.”

John 14:1-3 Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

“That where I am, there you may be also.” That statement by Jesus is the ultimate “I love you,” statement.

When I say “I love you” to Patty I am saying that I want to know her, be with her, talk to her, live with her, sleep with her, be one with her. When I say “I will” I follow that up with action, and when I say “I want” I follow that up with action as well.

When we fully understand what we are saying when we say, “I love you” we become very motivated to live our lives right, in a way that pleases God.

Husbands love their wives! Parents love their children. We love our friends. The great commandment is to love God. How? Do you? How do you know you do? How do you measure it?

Deuteronomy 11:1 You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

The desire of my heart is to please the Lord because I love Him, to obey Him because I love Him, to serve Him because I love Him. So, how do I say, “I love You” to God. I say, “I will.”

I will be kind to my grumpy neighbor. I will take my immoral thoughts captive. I will not get angry at my wife. I will control my spending and give more to the Lord. I will not look at porn.

God’s power flows to commitment. If you blow it, confess and repent and recommit. God is patient as we pursue holiness and righteousness because we love Him.

I begin every day with my prayer of commitment with a list of “I wills.” I ask for His power and wisdom to do well. At the end of the day I acknowledge where I didn’t do so well. I don’t beat myself up, I am simply honest with myself and God, and resolve to do better. God delights to give His strength to those who love Him and want to please Him. Little bit, by little bit I grow

I am going to climb Mt Adams two days from now. I am leaving my house at 6:00 am on Thursday morning, driving up to Trout Lake arriving at Trout Lake at around 9:00 am where I will meet my son-in-law, Kyle. Kyle is a Pastor in Washington, and is young and strong, and he is going to be my Sherpa and carry my camping stuff in his pack. We are going to start climbing at 11:00 am and camp on the mountain at about 10,000 feet getting there at approximately 5:00 pm. We will take a two man tent, warm sleeping bags, a “jet-boil” single burner, light weight cook stove, some freeze-dried meals, some warm cloths, a headlamp, sunglasses, sunscreen, gloves, and our cell phone to take pictures. We will take off the next morning at 6:00 am and climb to the top of Mt Adams which is 12,280 feet tall and then go back to our camp. We will decide then if we continue to the bottom and then drive home or stay another night and go down Saturday morning.

Because I grew up in Trout Lake and lived there from 1965 until 1976 I have climbed the Mountain quite a few times and climbed it just about every year from 1978 to 2017 while I was here in Jefferson as Pastor of JBC. I have made three attempts since 2017 but I failed to make it to the top each time. I hate to end my climbing career with a loss so I am going to try very hard to make it this year and then call it quits so I can go out as a winner.

I tried hard to ignore the fact that I wimped out the last three attempts to make it to the top and just be done with it, but because I knew that I could have made it if I had just persevered, it bugged me to death every year when a group from the church climbed without me. This is my last time climbing Mt Adams; win or lose so I hope I make it.

It hasn’t been that long ago that our church was given some stringent restrictions on meeting and gathering together because of COVID. As a church we decided that the restrictions were outside the jurisdiction that God gave to government, and chose to ignore them. Governments around the world over the last 2023 years have attempted to keep churches from meeting and gathering together as an attempt to keep Christianity from growing and spreading. Beginning with the time of the Roman Empire and moving down through the years to present many thousands of Christians have been jailed, tortured, and killed because they refused not to meet together.

Hebrews 10:24-25 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

What is called the “underground church” are churches meeting together at secret times and places so as not to be found out by the government of their country.

One of the sad things about the church in America today is that many Christians have a very lax, “whatever” attitude towards faithfully gathering together with their church family. They see the discipline of gathering as a burden. God created “the Body of Christ,” the church as a key way for us to grow spiritually and in the character of Christ.

“The Spiritual Disciplines” are those practices that have been recognized as crucial to our relationship with God and our spiritual growth by the early church fathers and key leaders in church history. Bible reading, prayer, and gathering are very important and those who are serious about growing spiritually will work hard to faithfully practicing them.

The phrase “Grumpy Old Men” came into existence for more reasons than a movie. The fact is many older people get grumpy, cranky, irritable, moody, and complain a lot because their joints hurt, their muscles ached, their hip, knee, and back hurt, and they have to get up three times in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, they struggle to get their socks on, they aren’t supposed to eat ice cream anymore, and on the list goes. Getting old is more than enough to make anybody grumpy.

One of the hardest things to do when we have aches and pains is to suffer in silence, not to grumble or complain or tell people how we feel as we attempt to get some sympathy. I don’t know for sure if it is true, but I believe that God gives His strength, joy, and peace to those who focus on the good things in their life, rejoice and thank God for them, and endure the hard and painful things without fussing too much.

God gives strength, He gives great joy, and He gives peace, but His blessings are conditional; that is, we have a part to play, a price to pay, like we have to put gas in the car if we expect it to run even if it is $4.50 a gallon.

Philippians 4:4-8 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! . . . Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

It helps me to make a commitment to the Lord every morning to grumble about nothing and rejoice about everything, and to ask for the Holy Spirit to fill me full of self-control.

I know some older adults that are fun to be around, because they are pleasant, positive, they smile a lot, are happy and joyful. I don’t think it is because they are fortunate to have no aches and pains, or that they are loaded up with pain-killers, I am pretty sure it is because they choose to act that way.

2 Corinthians 5:2-3. in this body we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. . .For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened,

Yesterday and today I cut, split, threw, hauled, and stacked firewood. I am now sitting in my recliner groaning, longing for my new, glorified body. I think the reason that we ache more, and get stiff more as we get older is to remind us that we are headed for a new life where everything is new, wonderful, strong, and feels great.

Philippians 3:20-21
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

So, even though our body feels terrible, we rejoice because it won’t be long now until the joy that we feel and the strength we will have will be incomprehensible.

A number of years ago I made a major mistake with Patty while I was fishing in Alaska. We were talking on the phone and I said, “while I am fishing I don’t think of anything or anybody else, my mind is totally consumed with fishing.” That may be true, but it wasn’t a very smart thing to say to my wife.

Part of our problem as an ambassador for Jesus, a witness for the gospel is that it isn’t very dominant in our thinking. What we think about most of the time controls our choices and behavior in life. A goal and discipline that will help get our thinking more focused on our calling and assignment from Jesus is to make a list of people in our life that are not believers and followers of Jesus, and to pray for them everyday. I call this list our, “seven for heaven” list. You can have one on the list or 20 who are neighbors, people you work with, people you see regularly or family. It takes just a couple of minutes to pray for these people but it makes a huge difference in our thinking and focus during the day, and God works in their life when we pray for them.

I assume that you all have a daily prayer time with God if even for a couple of minutes. Choose to pray for your list of lost people every day. This discipline is not hard, it takes very little time, but very few disciples of Jesus do this. It makes a big difference, give it a try.