One of the great things about being in the mountains for five days is you have a lot of time just to think about life and meditate on spiritual matters – all of which helps bring clarity in my own life. I also had the opportunity to observe my Mt. Kenya climbing guide, Zach Maina. Zach is a pretty humble and unassuming young Kenyan man, but watching him for five days was a learning experience in itself.
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| Zach at Nithi Falls |
During those five days, I saw a lot of parallels between being a mountain guide and also being a spiritual leader. Here are some of the things I observed:
· They know the terrain and watch the changing conditions – it was interesting to see that even when there wasn’t a path, Zach knew how to read the terrain to get us where we needed to go. I also noticed he looked up at the clouds a lot and was always on the watch for a change in the weather…spiritual leaders need to be on the lookout at all times, for both opportunities and opposition.
· They know their climbers – over the course of five days, Zach figured out what I could and couldn’t do, both physically and mentally. He took the time to get to know me not just as a climber, but also as a person…spiritual leaders need to treat a person individually and personally, not just one of many numbers.
· They have a climb plan, but are willing to change it – on the third day of our climb, Zach made a change to our established climb plan. We arrived at our set camp 2 hours early, and he pushed us on to climb another 3 hours and 1,000 feet. By doing this, he made the summit the next day that much easier and doable…spiritual leaders need to have a plan for where they are going, but they need to be willing to change it if opportunity or obstacles arise.
· They know how to set the pace for others – I know Zach could have climbed the mountain a lot faster than we did, but he set our pace each day for me. He knew when we needed to slow down (pole, pole – slow, slow) to not get nailed by the altitude and when he needed to push me to speed up (twende – come on)…spiritual leaders need to be more concerned about those they are leading and set their pace for the people they are leading, not themselves.
· They aren’t afraid to go off the beaten path – one of the favorite parts of my climb was when Zach took us “off road” for about one hour to go see Nithi Falls, a two-tiered fall of about 100 feet that reminded me of Kauai. Most people climbing Mt. Kenya don’t get to see these falls because it takes a little extra time and is a little treacherous…spiritual leaders need to be willing to break away from the pack and explore where others may not go.
· They emphasize the climb, not the destination – one thing Zach never did was tell me how far we had to go in either time, distance or altitude. He kept me focused on the paths we were on and what we had ahead of us and it really helped me enjoy what I was doing at the moment and not worry about what was ahead…spiritual leaders need to understand the power of “being present in the moment” and not talk only about the things to come and the mountaintop experiences, but talk more about the here-and-now and daily life.
· They come back to the mountain with more climbers – Zach shared with me that I was about his 150th climber and he anticipated there would be many more after me. He makes a living not climbing Mt. Kenya, but guiding others to climb Mt. Kenya…spiritual leaders need to keep discipling others their entire lives and not be satisfied with their own mountaintop experiences or having just disciple a few people
It truly was a powerful experience to climb Mt. Kenya, but I was equally pleased with the way God spoke to me during my time there with Him. The people of the Kikuyu tribe believe that Mogai (God) lives on Kere-Nyaga (Mt. Kenya) and he talked with their ancestral tribal leader on the mountain many, many centuries ago. I think I heard from Mogai on my climb, too.
