By Noel Thomason, Head of School
Early December carries a distinct kind of hush. The trees stand bare, the air sharpens, and the pace of life gathers both business and reflection. We sit in the afterglow of Thanksgiving, that annual pause where gratitude becomes its own form of worship. We turn our attention toward Christmas, preparing our hearts to remember the staggering miracle of Incarnation — the God who left His throne in heaven, clothed Himself in flesh to dwell among us. And just beyond the horizon waits the new year, a threshold where we examine our steps, re-evaluate our course, and lift our eyes toward the next summit God sets before us.
This season invites us to breathe deeply and look both backward and forward at once. It is a season of remembering God’s provision, naming His faithfulness, and taking stock of the year behind us, the victories, the losses, the unexpected mercies, and the hard-won lessons. But it is also a season of holy anticipation, where the whisper of new beginnings stirs in the cold air, calling us to renewed purpose.
It is in this spirit — reflective, hopeful, and grateful — that we arrive at Checkpoint 3 of this year’s StoneBridge School theme: Summit: Forged for the Climb. (See Checkpoint 1 and Checkpoint 2 here.)
A Journey in Four Movements
At the start of the year, we introduced our Summit theme by laying out the journey ahead — four checkpoints marking a spiritual ascent patterned after 2 Peter 1, the “ladder of faith” that calls us to grow upward into Christlike character. Each checkpoint represents a season of spiritual formation for our students, families, and school community.
- Checkpoint 1—Preparing for the Climb: The call to gather what matters, identify the tools of faith, and shed the weight that hinders.
- Checkpoint 2—Training & Conditioning: The discipline of the heart, where perseverance is built, habits are formed, and spiritual muscles take shape through daily obedience.
- Checkpoint 3—Reaching Base Camp (Climb Together): The recognition that the journey becomes communal — that deeper growth happens not alone but as a fellowship bound together.
- Checkpoint 4—The Final Ascent: The push toward the summit, the vision of mature faith, and the celebration of God’s completed work.
And now, as winter settles in, we find ourselves at base camp, the third stage — the place between what has been endured and what is yet to be conquered. It is here that the words of Paul come alive with renewed force: “I press on toward the goal…” (Philippians 3:14).
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.
The Sacred Pause of Base Camp
Every true climber knows that base camp is not merely a staging ground — it is a place of sobering reflection and renewed gratitude. Here, the ascent pauses, but purpose does not. The thin air invites honesty, humility, and clarity. Reaching base camp is an achievement in itself. It symbolizes endurance, discipline, patience, and the faithful accumulation of many small steps taken in obedience.
But it also awakens a deeper truth: no one arrives here alone. Somewhere between the first step at the foot of the mountain and the moment the summit flickers into view, every climber who has accomplished anything of lasting worth experiences the unmistakable revelation: “I would not have made it here without the ones who climbed beside me.” This realization is not self-deprecating; it is sanctifying. It is not discouraging; it is deeply freeing. It is the moment when self-sufficiency dies, and true community rises.
In The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer reminds us that humility is the inevitable fruit of seeing God as He truly is.[1] The higher the mountain, the smaller the climber appears, and the more keenly aware he becomes of the hands that steadied him and the voices that encouraged him when his breath grew thin. At base camp, pride melts, gratitude grows, and community becomes not an accessory to the climb but its very lifeline.
The Death of Self and the Rise of Community
Paul’s call to “press on heavenward” carries both urgency and surrender. It is the movement of a soul that has relinquished the illusion of autonomy and embraced the fellowship of believers.
To press on demands the death of self — self-glory, self-protection, self-promotion, self-reliance.
These must fall away like discarded gear, too heavy for the altitude of spiritual maturity. For no one climbs into the high places of God while carrying the baggage of self. But when self diminishes, community emerges in full color. We begin to see the people God has placed around us not as bystanders but as essential companions in the journey. Teachers, parents, mentors, coaches, classmates, friends—people who steady our steps, speak truth when it is unwelcome but needed, hold the rope when our grip falters, and quietly bear burdens we could not name. This is the fellowship of the climb—a fellowship forged not by convenience but by calling.
Teachers, parents, mentors, coaches, classmates, friends—people who steady our steps, speak truth when it is unwelcome but needed, hold the rope when our grip falters, and quietly bear burdens we could not name. This is the fellowship of the climb—a fellowship forged not by convenience but by calling.
The Ascent of Thanksgiving
The early-December season sharpens our awareness of blessing. Thanksgiving trains the heart to look backward, to trace the fingerprints of God across the story of the year. In the climb of life, thanksgiving becomes a spiritual base camp of its own — a moment to stop, look around, and genuinely see
…Every parent who prayed during uncertain seasons.
…Every teacher who stayed late to encourage a struggling student.
…Every grandparent whose faithfulness anchors generations.
…Every student who grew a little more resilient, a little more kind, a little more like Christ.
…Every friend who offered presence over solutions, grace over judgment, and patience over pressure.
Thanksgiving is the time we name these gifts and naming them strengthens us for what lies ahead.
Christmas: The Summit Descends to Us
As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, we remember the mystery of the climb reversed. In Bethlehem, the summit descended into the valley. The Highest became the lowest so that our ascent to God would be possible.
Here, at base camp, we remember: We climb only because Christ came down. We press on because He pressed into our humanity. We ascend because the Son of God descended for us. The Incarnation is the ultimate reminder that no one climbs alone. God Himself climbed into our human story. This truth steadies our hearts as we look toward the final ascent of the school year and the new year that awaits.
The Tapestry of Providence
When a climber reaches base camp, the journey behind them suddenly feels both distant and intensely present. It stretches out like a tapestry — one woven of experiences, people, mercies, and moments that seemed disconnected at the time but now reveal their perfect cohesion.
One day — and it happens to everyone who climbs long enough — a person reaches a point in their journey where all the events that brought them thus far lie before them as if timeless. Each memory, each mercy, each lesson appears like a thread woven together forming a fine linen cloth, handed to them for this very moment, to wipe the sweat from their eyes so they can see with clarity and press on.
This tapestry of our lives is not ornamental; it is functional. It does not exist for admiration alone; it exists for strengthening. God weaves nothing for beauty alone — His beauty always carries purpose. Tozer writes that the soul beholding God becomes awake to truths it could not see before.[2] The tapestry of Providence is one such awakening. At base camp, in the quietness, joy breaks in; we see clearly: God has been faithful, and His faithfulness is fuel.
This tapestry of our lives is not ornamental; it is functional. It does not exist for admiration alone; it exists for strengthening. God weaves nothing for beauty alone — His beauty always carries purpose.
A Community Forged for the Climb
StoneBridge School is, at its heart, a community forged for a spiritual climb. We do not merely educate — we disciple. We do not simply teach — we form. We do not simply gather — we belong.
And in this third checkpoint of the year, it becomes abundantly clear that our families, grandparents, faculty, staff, students, and alumni are climbing together.
… Parents, thank you for entrusting us with your children, for praying with us, for partnering with us in the shaping of hearts.
… Grandparents, thank you for anchoring families in generational faithfulness, for setting examples of endurance and devotion.
… Students, thank you for leaning into growth, for trying again when things are hard, for showing courage in the daily climb.
… Faculty and staff, thank you for your steadfast labor in the thin air of spiritual formation, where the work is demanding but eternally meaningful.
… Alumni, thank you for carrying forward the values learned here and extending the legacy of StoneBridge into new horizons.
We reach base camp because we reach it together.
Pressing On into the New Year
As the calendar turns and we stand at the threshold of a new year, Paul’s words settle over us with renewed call: “I press on toward the goal…”
Not aimlessly.
Not anxiously.
But heavenward — toward Christ Himself, the true Summit.
Base camp is not a place to linger forever. It is a place to strengthen resolve, bind ourselves to our companions, and behold the faithfulness of God before pressing upward. The new year will bring new challenges, new growth, new victories, and new opportunities to trust. But the God who guided us to this point is the same God who will guide us higher.
And because we climb together, we climb stronger. This early-winter season, with its gratitude, its anticipation, and its solemn beauty, reminds us of the spiritual journey we are on. Checkpoint 3 marks the moment when the climb becomes undeniably communal: a fellowship of believers moving heavenward, strengthened by one another, and sustained by the faithfulness of God.
As we celebrate Christmas, welcome a new year, and prepare for the ascent ahead, may our hearts echo Paul’s anthem:
We press on.
We press on together.
We press on heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Footnotes
[1] A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, Chapter 1.
[2] Ibid., reflections on the holiness and majesty of God.
Featured Photo: Janis Fasel, Unsplash.
