Less is More

There is something about getting away to the mountains that brings me closer to God. I spent last week with 36 other youth pastors in the mountains near Colorado Springs at a CIY retreat called Wilderness. It was refreshing to simplify my life for a few days. No cell phone, no internet, no e-mails, no meetings, no pre-meetings to discuss what we will discuss at the meeting, and no post-meetings to rehash what we discussed at the meeting. Instead, I was able to focus on God and what He desired for my life. When you take away the distractions and set yourself in a place of wonder like the mountains near Pikes Peak, surrounded by aspen and pine and plenty of open space to hike, it’s not too hard to focus on God. I remember several years ago hearing Dick Alexander (a preacher in Ohio) say, “To experience the best, sometimes you have to get away from other stuff – even good stuff. To experience a clear, peaceful and beautiful starry night you have to get away from the lights and sounds of the city.”

It’s true. We have so many things to do and so many people to see… and most of the time these are good things and good people. It’s just that we are often so busy we don’t have time for what is greater still. We fall under the great American lie that more is better. More classes, more events, more studies, more retreats, more books, more church stuff and so on – all of which are good. But the truth is, more isn’t always better. Sometimes more is just more.