There is a moment—fleeting, almost sacred—when the climber reaches the summit. The air is thin, the horizon stretches endlessly, and the labor of the ascent gives way to clarity. The world below appears small. In that moment, every voice around us seems to whisper the same conclusion: You have arrived. But the Christian must learn to hear differently. For the follower of Christ, the summit is never the end.
Every so often, a story slips past our defenses and teaches us something we were not prepared to learn. It comes quietly, sometimes humorously, wrapped in imagination rather than instruction. And because our guard is down, the truth finds a way in sideways, settling in deeper than we expected. One such moment occurs in the movie The Princess Bride, not amid swordplay or spectacle, but in a dim cottage on the edge of despair. The scene is whimsical, but it names something profoundly human.
This season invites us to breathe deeply and look both backward and forward at once. It is a season of remembering God’s provision, the victories, the losses, the unexpected mercies, and the hard-won lessons. But it is also a season of holy anticipation. Here, in this season of thanksgiving, anticipation, and reflection, we learn that pressing on is not an act of solitary striving, but of communal grace.
At StoneBridge School, athletics is more than a program—it’s a proving ground for faith in Christ. Every practice, every game, and every huddle becomes an opportunity to glorify God through discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. The school’s athletics program is built on five key principles that reflect the same Christ-centered excellence and character formation that lead families to reenroll year after year.
As the leaves turn and college football season reaches full stride, I’m struck by how much the game has changed. Shifts in the culture of sports remind me of an old classic I watched a few years ago, one that offers a surprising parallel betwen pragmatism and principle. Pragmatism whispers, “Do whatever works. Bend the truth if you must. Cut the corner. Chase the result.” Principle, on the other hand, calls us to the harder path…
The following is the first of a four-part message Pastor Corbett Casteen, with Liberty Live Church, delivered during this year’s Upper School Retreat, Sept. 16-18. How do we stay faithful in a culture that pulls us in every other direction? Daniel’s life shows us what it looks like to live for God in a world that doesn’t.
