Two weekends ago, Adriene and I went to Chattanooga to spend a weekend on a short vacation and concert.

We started out the weekend with a short trip over to Chickamauga Battlefield to visit some of the monuments.

Later in the day, we travelled up to the top of Lookout Mountain to see Phil Keaggy in concert in front of the chapel at Covenant College.

Covenant College brings back many fond memories from my college years. Many times, Covenant was a hideaway for me to run away from the pressures of Georgia Tech for a while and hang out with friends. At Covenant, nobody cared about the stresses of Tech and I was able to get some perspective away from the fishbowl. I loved driving up to the top of the mountain and back down looking over the city lights of Chattanooga.

Adriene and I laid down in the grass on the front lawn of the chapel and took in the music. Phil Keaggy was amazing, as always, running his fingers up and down the fretboard in a frantic dance. Many years ago, I had seen Keaggy inside the chapel, so it was a renewal of some fond memories seeing him now perform in front of the chapel.

On Sunday, we closed out the weekend with a trip back up the mountain to Point Park on the end of Lookout Mountain.

The weather was perfect and the skies were clear. It was wonderful just sitting on the lawn with my wife and staring into the sky and listening to terrific music. Way back in youth camps, we used to call these high points in our life “mountain-top moments” which carried us through the difficult times. In many ways, that’s what this weekend felt like, a high point in a life and marriage of ups and downs. I’ll treasure days like this whenever trials come along.