Written by: Michael Basuini
Many people describe me as “chill,” “laid-back” or “even quelled,” and I completely agree; those 3 things characterize me very well. I am not easily angered or frustrated, and even when I am super happy and excited, it is not overly obvious. But, I have found that there is one thing that can really bring some emotion out of me: Mountains! In fact, when I first heard about Hacienda El Refugio (an adventure camp in the MOUNTAINS of Ecuador) I could hardly sit still. It took a good couple months of my internship at HER for the reality that I was exploring the Andes Mountains to sink in. I couldn’t help but to continually remind myself “you are running in the freaking Andes Mountains!” But with all the excitement and beauty of being in the mountains, even “The Andes Mountains!” there are also some pretty big challenges.
On July 19th 2015, at about 11 P.M I embarked on an adventure with John and Esteban to climb not just any mountain, but the biggest mountain in all of Ecuador: Chimborazo. I was aware that climbing ginormous mountains like this one is no walk in the park. I’ve read a lot about it and heard lots of stories, but it’s one of those things that you never really understand how hard it actually is, until you experience it for yourself. I knew I was going to suffer a little bit…or even a lot of bit…I was ready…I’m a runner, I practice being comfortable in the uncomfortable every day. But what I did not know was that I was going to be broken.
Eventually after 6 or 7 hours of climbing we got to a part that was straight up the mountain side on snow and ice, and I was not doing so well. Looking up all I could see was more mountain with no end in sight, and I could not even begin to think about how far we had come since we started. Chimborazo seemed endless. My body was weakening, and along with it so was my mind and my spirit. I’ve been in positions before where I am tired and unable to continue moving as quickly as I would like to, but only Chimborazo has brought me to the point where it took me everything I had just to take one single step. I could hardly focus anymore; between each step my eyes would close and I would start to fall asleep, I’d start to forget where I was and day-dream ridiculous things. Then I would have to snap myself out of it, and push myself to take just one more step. It felt impossibly hard, but life too can sometimes feel that way.
During this adventure, God taught me a huge lesson on focus. What “mountains” in my life have I started climbing and then fallen asleep when it got really tough? What areas of my life do I need to stop worrying about reaching the top but instead just focus on taking one more single step forward?
The truth is, despite how hard I fought, and how much I pushed myself beyond the limits of my own body, I never reached the summit of Chimborazo; on my call we turned around after 8+ hours of climbing. But in no way was this adventure a failure, I made it much higher than I had ever been before, over 20,000 ft altitude! And with that I must be content because I know that in life I will never reach the true summit until the day I enter the gates of heaven. Until then, there will always be another step to focus on, to push higher and further than I have ever been before.
“Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining forward towards what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Phillipians 3:12-14
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