This past week, my church's youth group, myself included, embarked on an annual journey. We, along with several other groups, took a seven hour trip to church camp in a small town called Dayton, Tennessee. Let me just say one thing - church camp is awesome. I have been both as a camper and now a counselor, and I love every second that I spend there. God moves through camp and all who attend in a truly magnificent way. There really is no feeling that can compare to the feeling of you and God on a mountain top together.

However, this peaceful, distraction free, fulfilling feeling of camp can cause problems of its own. The camp pastor said many great things last week. In fact, most of what he had to say spoke to me, but one specific phrase that really stuck with me was what he told us near the end of his sermon on the last night of camp. It was one simple phrase: "don't let yourself have just a 'mountain top experience'".

Now, many may ask what is wrong with having a so-called "mountain top experience". The answer to that is a huge "nothing". There is nothing wrong with experiencing something great with God while you are in such a place to. The problem occurs when we do not take our experience home with us.

For many of us, the high of camp wears off and we begin to find ourselves not nearly as excited for Jesus as we were even a week ago. By the time we are back in school our lives have become otherwise occupied. That connection we had felt with our God is ever-waning and we struggle to keep close with Him in many ways.

It is a struggle. However, when we begin to realize the potential for us to lose our growing closeness to our Heavenly Father, we must remember what was said by Jesus in John 16:32 "I am not alone, because the Father is with me." This verse will always ring true for the children of God.

However, knowing that we are not alone sometimes isn't enough for all of us. We doubt, we go through struggles and hard times, and we begin to question our relationship with God. In this case, we must just look to the very next verse, John 16:33, where Jesus states, "These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

There is nothing stronger than our God. He is the greatest thing to ever happen to any of our lives. No matter what we face in life, we have Him as our firm foundation. He will never fail us, even when we continually fail him. The Lord is our purpose, and that is all we need to remind ourselves of when we find ourselves slipping away from Him. "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me -- the task of testifying the good news of God's grace" Acts 20:24. We must run towards him with a fury so great that people will notice. Remember that mountain top. Remember what you heard, what you saw. Remember Christ's unconditional love for you. Live for that daily. Don't decide to leave it on a mountain.