I was a 16-year-old brand-new believer growing up outside of Reidsville, NC. Through a mentor I seized the opportunity to be a camp counselor far away from my home at a camp in the 9,000-foot Rampart Range west of Colorado Springs. Growing up I had always dreamed of backpack adventures, exploring and long treks that tested my survival skills. I had begun to acquire the pack, bag, compass, maps, pack stove and boots necessary for such an adventure. The camp counselor gig would get me closer to my goal than I had ever been before. After a day of counselor orientation, the camp director announced that they needed six volunteers to take on an adventure session. They were training advanced counselors in high-altitude survival camping modeled after Outward Bound. My heart leapt within me. I’m sure I embarrassed myself with my hand raised before the challenge was even fully presented. To my joy, I WAS CHOSEN to be one of the six. I grabbed my untested North Face pack, bag and survival supplies, and headed to the cabin where the six of us were to spend our first night before our adventure.

About an hour into sleep, the lights suddenly came on in the cabin and we were told to have our packs ready in five minutes, that we were leaving in the middle of a moonless night to points unknown. After a two-hour ride in the back of a covered pickup along dusty fire roads, the six of us were dropped off on the side of a mountain, given a map and compass, and told that we were to make our way back to camp the next morning. We bivouacked on the side of the fire lane as my adrenaline-soaked brain tried to sleep the final five hours of darkness to no avail. After we had eaten a simple breakfast, we traversed a nearby slope to a high point to try and get an idea where we were. Unfolded before us lay a squiggly lined topography map that covered about 100 square miles of Colorado wilderness. After 15 minutes, we knew we were lost! The night drive had fully disoriented us. We could find the main camp and cabins on the map, but we had no clue where we were! “Let’s try praying!” someone said. “Good idea! If anyone lacks wisdom … .”

With our map properly oriented north, we then noticed the terrain around us in detail. There was an interesting high double peak to our north-west. We could hear a significant creek to our south-east and observed a ridge to our north-east that seemed to hold a long, consistent elevation for almost a half mile. Starting from the base camp on the map we began to move in concentric circles outward, looking for a double peak. We found three, but only one had a creek and ridge in the proper spots relative on the map. Suddenly, A MOMENT OF CLARITY! We knew where we were on the map, AND where base camp was on the map. All that was left was to plot a course back to base and we would be eating a hot lunch! Seven hours of pack-laden trek and a hundred compass shots later produced a welcome sight — base camp with all the comforts of, well, base camp!

There is true energy in a “moment of clarity.” It can give months and sometimes years of direction and energy. For the Disciples of Jesus, this point in the night was that moment. They realized Jesus was actually GOD! They now knew He had always been with the Father, and that He was returning somehow to the Father, and that He was leaving them on the earth to undo the curse of Adam by preaching the kingdom of God through the indwelling power of the Spirit. They had seen all the attributes of the Father flowing through the life of His Son Jesus, and they had begun to radiate that same glorious authority simply by being with Him!

John 16:25-30 describes that serendipitous moment. All 11 Disciples understand Jesus clearly. The new direction for their lives lie before them. Despite the unknowns of how, when and where, there are at least two points on the map that lie clear before them: who and why! God has come in the Person of His Son. Each will follow Him as He leads by His Spirit. He will pour out His glory through their proclamation and prayer-filled lives. And all this would be, not for their glory, but rather for the glory of the Lord that they had come to love. The passion in their hearts for Jesus was ignited. “Who else has the words of eternal life?” And that eternal life, which had already begun, was to be spent with Jesus in a place He was preparing! Let the adventure begin!