My answer: “To have a mountaintop experience with You, Lord.”

     Vacations aren’t meant to be merely time away from the routines and challenges and stresses of normal life. They are breaks  from the routines and challenges and stresses of normal life so that we can hear God speak to us words and guidance and inspirations that we’re normally too busy to notice — so that we can heal or make new discoveries or see a better solution to a problem back at home or realize the calling to a new commitment that’s been long overdue.

     During my mountaintop break, Jesus revealed His purpose – His answer to the question, “Why are you here?” He revealed it through the experiences of the fun Ralph and I had exploring a landscape that’s very different from Florida where we live. He revealed it through the adventure we had flying between mountaintop trees on ziplines. He revealed it through the wonder of nature as we hiked various trails, and He revealed it through the strenuous hike that was longer than expected and which never did take us to our destination because our knees couldn’t handle the final, sharp descent.

     The photos and reflections in this book come from the lessons we learned.