The Wise and the Foolish at the Summit

 

I begin my days in darkness, that is to say, before the sun rises…usually before there is even a hint of

sun on the horizon. There is something about the first fruits of the day, the quiet, the anticipation…the

 listening.

 

This morning I was pondering the summit of Mount Everest. Those who attempt the summit leave in darkness and can be seen with their headlamps on as they slowly make their way higher and higher. Some make it, some don’t. Some who don’t make it are wise, they know when enough is enough; others who don’t make it are foolish. Sometimes the wise suffer accidents, being wise doesn’t make us immune from tragedy; sometimes the wise may even be affected by the foolish.

 

Everest has become a tourist destination, and with tourism has come death. Everest has become an attraction, a theme park. During the past few years the Nepalese government has worked to place restrictions on the number of people on the mountain in an effort to reduce deaths and accidents. There are the wise and the foolish on Everest, both climbers and non-Nepalese expedition guides.

 

As a lover of our national parks, I pay attention to tragic accounts of visitors who fail to understand that our national parks are not theme parks, they are not amusement parks – they are glorious and awesome and can be quite dangerous. Every year people die because they do not heed the warnings of the Park Service; they hike unprepared, they venture off approved trails, they approach wildlife; as a result they are injured or they die.

 

Why do we treat the Gospel, the Scriptures, worship, and our Lord Jesus as tourist destinations and amusement parks? Charlatans offer expeditions in prophecy, they pedal “your best life now,” they promise to improve virtually every aspect of life, as if they were cruise directors hawking to one and all a great ride, a wonderful adventure, and fun for all. When we tire of one activity they produce another; another book, another video series, another teaching. Does no one notice that no one grows, that we don’t mature into Christ as His People? Do we not wonder why we are no closer to the summit after ten, twenty, or fifty years on the Christian entertainment tour than when we started?

 

Can we see the dead bodies on the mountain? Those who sincerely thought they were pursuing the truth, following the blind on the mountain – and then they ran out of oxygen and simply gave up (or fell into a crevasse), more casualties of the toxic religious world that “is ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth.” Of course their leaders can, and will, readily recruit the next expedition to nowhere.

 

The Scriptures teach us again and again that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – but our entertainment directors will have none of that; the Bible is some kind of playbill, God is our therapist, and sin is no more than the common cold. We are the focus of the spotlight and our Lord Jesus is a stagehand.

 

After pondering Everest this morning I opened a book I was reading and saw a quote from the enigmatic Emily Dickinson, “Somehow myself survived the night/And entered with the Day…”