We live in a world where almost everything is getting faster. But some things still can't be rushed.

Same-day delivery. Instant answers. AI. Thirty-second highlight reels.

Technology keeps eliminating waiting.

Life keeps requiring preparation.

You can't Amazon Prime character. You can't download experience. You can't ask AI to do your push-ups. And you can't cram for a crisis.

Standing inside the Colosseum in Rome reminded me that worthwhile things take time to build.

Kilimanjaro taught me the same lesson.

Everyone sees the summit picture of Amanda and me. They don't see the months of walking, training, testing gear and carrying weighted backpacks that came before it.

The work nobody saw prepared us for the moment everybody sees.

In 1 Corinthians 9:25, Paul writes, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.”

So if you're waiting for the next job, opportunity, breakthrough or open door, ask yourself:

If God opened that door tomorrow, would I be ready to walk through it?

Episode 174 of Summit After the Storm is about what happens before the opportunity arrives and why the ordinary days, quiet work and preparation nobody applauds may be building exactly what you'll need when your moment comes.

You don't become ready when the moment arrives. The moment reveals how ready you've become.

#Motivation #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #Faith #ChristianPodcast #ChristianLiving #TrustGod #Purpose #Preparation #SuccessMindset #Discipline #1Corinthians9 #Kilimanjaro #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

“Recalculating.”

We've all heard that word from our GPS.

There's an accident ahead. Road construction. A closed street. Suddenly the blue line changes and you're being sent down a road that makes absolutely no sense.

But you follow it.

Why?

Because the GPS can see something ahead that you can't.

Traveling through Europe, our family depended on GPS constantly as we navigated unfamiliar cities, train stations, apartments, restaurants and landmarks. We knew where we wanted to go, but we couldn't always see how we'd get there.

Life can feel exactly the same way.

A job changes. A relationship changes. A door closes. A plan falls apart. Suddenly, it feels like God is recalculating the route you thought your life was supposed to take.

And you're asking:

“God, this isn't where I was going. What are You doing?”

Kilimanjaro taught me that the path to the summit isn't a straight line either. The terrain changes. The trail turns. Sometimes the summit disappears completely from view.

But the destination is still there.

Proverbs 3:5–6 reminds us:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding...”

God doesn't always give us the entire route, every turn, and an ETA.

Sometimes He simply asks us to trust Him enough to take the next faithful step.

In Episode 173 of Summit After the Storm, we're talking about what happens when life suddenly says “Recalculating” and why a changed route doesn't necessarily mean a failed journey.

If your life looks nothing like the route you planned, this episode is for you.

Maybe you're not lost. Maybe you're just being led down a road you couldn't see coming.

#TrustGod #Faith #GodsPlan #ChristianPodcast #ChristianLiving #Jesus #FaithOverFear #Proverbs3 #ChristianEncouragement #Purpose #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #LifeLessons #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

What if God isn't absent? What if you just haven't recognized Him yet?

When life doesn't make sense, one of the easiest questions to ask is:

“God, where are You?”

Jacob experienced something similar in Genesis 28. After encountering God in a place where he hadn't expected Him, Jacob woke up and said:

“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” — Genesis 28:16

God hadn't suddenly arrived.

Jacob suddenly recognized Him.

Looking back at Kilimanjaro, I understand that differently. Before the storm ripped our tent loose, before survival became more important than reaching the summit, the people we would desperately need were already walking the mountain beside us.

I just couldn't see what was coming.

And sometimes life is like that.

We want God to explain the route. We want to understand the closed door, the difficult season, the unexpected person, the unanswered prayer.

But faith isn't always understanding what God is doing.

Sometimes faith is believing He's present even when you don't understand what He's doing.

In Episode 172 of Summit After the Storm, we're talking about recognizing God's presence in the places we never would have chosen and learning to pray a different prayer:

“God, help me recognize You, even here.”

Because sometimes we don't recognize God's presence until we look backward and realize...

He was already there.

#Faith #ChristianPodcast #GodsPresence #TrustGod #Jesus #ChristianLiving #ChristianEncouragement #Genesis28 #FaithOverFear #GodsPlan #Bible #Purpose #Kilimanjaro #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

I like this better than simply “Weight Matters” for discovery because the question creates curiosity while the second half delivers the emotional hook.

Some of the heaviest things we carry in life don’t weigh a pound.

Guilt. Resentment. Regret. Fear about tomorrow. Other people’s expectations. Responsibility for choices someone else made. The need to control outcomes we were never capable of controlling.

On Kilimanjaro, I learned quickly that weight matters. Every extra pound in your pack eventually makes the climb harder.

But the same thing happens in life.

The Bible tells us to “carry each other’s burdens” in Galatians 6:2. But Psalm 55:22 also tells us to “cast your cares on the Lord.”

So which burdens are ours to carry, which are we called to help someone else carry, and which ones were we supposed to give to God a long time ago?

In Episode 171 of Summit After the Storm, we explore an important distinction:

A cross is different from baggage.

Following Christ requires sacrifice, responsibility, commitment and sometimes pain. But worry isn’t your cross. Resentment isn’t your cross. Trying to control another person isn’t your cross.

Sometimes those are just rocks we’ve stuffed into our own backpack.

Before asking God for stronger shoulders, maybe we need to ask:

“God, what am I carrying that You never asked me to carry?”

Sometimes faith means picking up a burden.

And sometimes faith means finally putting one down.

#Faith #ChristianPodcast #Jesus #TrustGod #ChristianLiving #ChristianEncouragement #LetGoAndLetGod #Psalm55 #FaithOverFear #Leadership #PersonalGrowth #LifeLessons #Kilimanjaro #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

Spotify Description

What do you do when your life stops following the itinerary you planned?

Traveling through Europe reminded me that the itinerary and the journey are rarely the same thing.

Trains get delayed. Plans change. You take a wrong turn. And sometimes the moments you remember most happen between the destinations.

Life isn't much different.

We make plans for our careers, marriages, families, finances and futures. Then something happens that wasn't on the itinerary, and suddenly we're asking:

God, why am I going this way when I thought I was headed over there?

Kilimanjaro taught me that reaching a summit doesn't mean walking straight toward it. Sometimes the trail moves sideways. Sometimes it even seems to take you away from your destination.

The person who knows the mountain understands the route differently than the person simply looking at the summit.

In Episode 170 of Summit After the Storm, we explore Proverbs 20:24, trusting God when we don't understand the path, leading when the original plan no longer works, and remembering:

Just because I don't understand the route doesn't mean God has lost the map.

The detour may not be what you wanted.

It may not be what you planned.

But it doesn't have to be wasted.

Keep walking. God may still be writing the story.

#Faith #TrustGod #GodsPlan #ChristianPodcast #ChristianLiving #Jesus #Proverbs20 #FaithOverFear #Purpose #ChristianEncouragement #Leadership #LifeLessons #Kilimanjaro #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

“That’s how we’ve always done it.”

It might be one of the most expensive sentences in leadership.

Traveling through Europe, I was surrounded by buildings, streets and structures created for a completely different world. Some adapted and survived. Others became monuments to something that used to be.

There’s a lesson in that for all of us.

Experience matters. Processes matter. We shouldn’t throw something away simply because it’s old.

But even SOPs have revision numbers for a reason.

Markets change. Technology changes. People change. And sometimes the strategy that got us here won’t get us where we’re going next.

Kilimanjaro taught me the same thing. As the altitude, temperature and terrain changed, we had to change our approach. But one thing never changed:

The summit.

In Episode 169 of Summit After the Storm, we explore the difference between changing your purpose and changing your approach, what Isaiah 43:18–19 teaches about becoming too attached to the past, and one question every leader should occasionally ask:

Am I still doing this because it works, or simply because it’s what we’ve always done?

Keep the mission.
Keep the values.
Keep the faith.

But be willing to adjust the route.

#Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #ChangeManagement #ChristianLeadership #Faith #ChristianPodcast #Jesus #Isaiah43 #PersonalGrowth #GrowthMindset #BusinessLeadership #Purpose #Kilimanjaro #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

Everybody takes a picture of the person standing on the summit.

Almost nobody takes a picture of the person who carried their tent.

Standing inside the Colosseum in Rome, I thought about the thousands of unnamed people whose labor helped build something that still stands nearly 2,000 years later. We remember emperors. We remember Caesar. But most of the people who actually carried the stones disappeared from history.

Kilimanjaro taught me the same lesson in a much more personal way.

Amanda and I were two climbers supported by an incredible 11-man team. They carried equipment, collected water, prepared food, set up camp and made our climb possible. And when our tent was nearly blown off a cliff in the middle of the night, they came running.

When you see our summit picture, most of them aren't in it.

But without them, there probably isn't a summit picture.

In Episode 168 of Summit After the Storm, we talk about servant leadership, the people doing unseen work behind our success, and the challenge of Galatians 6:2:

“Carry each other's burdens.”

So here's today's question:

Who’s carrying your tent, and when was the last time you told them you noticed?

#Leadership #ServantLeadership #ChristianLeadership #Faith #Jesus #ChristianPodcast #Galatians6 #Gratitude #Teamwork #LeadershipDevelopment #Purpose #Kilimanjaro #Rome #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm

Ever feel like you're losing the day before it's really even started?

Episode 167 was released a little later than planned because I couldn't decide what I wanted to talk about. Then I realized the struggle to get the episode done was the lesson.

We put enormous pressure on ourselves to win everything at once. Work. Family. Faith. Relationships. The next decision. The next week. The future.

But Kilimanjaro taught me something different:

You don't climb the whole mountain at once. You take the next step.

Pole pole. Slowly, slowly.

In this episode of Summit After the Storm, we talk about why you don't have to fix everything today, how leaders can help people focus on the next achievable step, and why Jesus' words in Matthew 6:34 may be exactly what an overwhelmed person needs to hear:

“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

You don't have to win tomorrow today.

You don't even have to win the whole day.

Make the next faithful decision. Take the next step. Then another.

Keep climbing. Pole pole.

#ChristianPodcast #Faith #Jesus #ChristianLiving #Matthew6 #TrustGod #Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #Motivation #PersonalGrowth #Overwhelmed #Purpose #Kilimanjaro #KeepClimbing #SummitAfterTheStorm