"The mountains are calling, and I must go."  When I hike through the mountains of the American West, as I did frequently these months of summer, I think often of these words from the American (though he was born in Scotland) naturalist John Muir.  Like Muir, I find mountains singularly compelling, a place to which I feel I must go, a place in which I feel most at home.  Happily--and gratefully--I have to this point been able to travel to mountains at least once or twice a year.

    What do I find?  Peace, vision, insight, challenge, rest:  new pictures of how life plays itself out in an intentional and meaningful world.  New pictures of existence as a divine image bearer in a broken world.  Fresh paths into the deeper patterns of reality.  And more.

    Ultimately, however, I find how complicated living with the complexities of a meaningful life in a purposeful world can be.

    And isn't that the point?  Living without purpose requires little effort.  Living with it, and the God from which it comes, however, is the greatest challenge, and opportunity, of all.