“What are the risks of loving someone? One of the greatest is losing them.” Marcy and I attend the same church and recently she shared her thoughts with me about the death of her husband while ice climbing near Cody, Wyoming in December of 2000. Duane and his partner had finished the climb and were preparing to descend. Only speculation can be offered for the cause of the accident, but when the news came, she remembers the kids screaming and her daughter wanting to run.
When Joe Tasker died in 1982 high on the unclimbed Northeast Ridge of Everest, his girlfriend of two and a half years, Maria Coffey, was left behind. In her book, Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadows, she chronicles her journey. She writes, “’He died doing what he loved best,’ they always say. But when climbers meet their end on the high peaks, the ordeal is just beginning for their wives, husbands, children, parents, and friends.”
In the last issue of News on the Rocks, my concluding thought was we have the freedom to embrace Godly risk for our own enjoyment. With the knowledge that our climbing can have serious consequences, this sounds contradictory! Let’s review how we arrived there. We learned that the world God created is not a place of security but a place of risk. We considered, “Why did God place risk in our world?” The answer was so that He could experience a relationship with mankind where love and adoration were freely expressed. God took the biggest risk of all time so that He might find pleasure. Therefore, by following His example, taking risk in life is acceptable.
In this issue, we will consider how the sovereignty of God fits into all of this and suggest guidelines for determining when risk is Godly. Have you seen the prologue to the animated movie Toy Story 2? It shows an old man playing chess against…himself. It’s funny watching him attempt to play both sides of the board. Is that how the sovereignty of God works? Is He playing both sides of the board, making all His moves and all ours too?
Clearly, this is not so. In the middle of God’s reigning, many terrible outcomes occur. Does God prevent teenage liaisons from producing pregnancies? Fallen angels and men use their powers to commit horrendous daily evil. Does God stop every bullet fired at an innocent victim? Does He stop every plane from crashing… into a building?
Does God cause these people to sin or cause this evil? James 1:13 says, “When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;” Then He can't be moving all the pieces on the board, because people sin all the time. God is Sovereign! But allowing for man to have a free will, bad things can and do happen.
The scriptures say that God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:45) Additionally, in John chapter 9, Jesus’ disciples asked him “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” He answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
We must humbly acknowledge that there's a great deal of mystery involved in God's sovereign plan for each of us. With time giving perspective, Marci said, “I’m not mad at God or Duane. I’ve learned that God’s calendar is not mine. I’ve learned ‘WHY?’ will not be answered here on earth.” One of the truths of our lives which we stuff way back in our consciousness is that we are destined to die. (Hebrews 9:27) Whether it’s through climbing or another way, God has ordained a time for us to die.
Does that imply that a novice climber should launch into a 5.12 R pitch trusting the outcome in God’s hands? No! That’s foolishness. Our risk taking needs to be balanced against being a good steward of our lives. Therefore let me suggest a few guidelines for determining Godly risks.
Motive: Glorifying God or Self?
Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Most climbers allow climbing to become their reason for living, their God. Much risk-taking happens to bring glory to self. Doing it for self is not godly.
At the same time, God has created people to climb for His glory. Tobin Sorenson pushed the risk standards. Bruce Adams in Tobin’s obituary in Climbing wrote, “Tobin understood the risks he took might bring death at a young age. The thought often robbed him of sleep. However, he believed, as he told me, that God had created him to climb mountains, and thus he would climb to the best of his ability. He saw that his talent did not belong to himself but rather to God who entrusted him with it.” For Tobin, not taking risk would have been wrong. Our motive needs to be one in which we glorify God as we enjoy the risk-infused world that He created!
Responsibilities: Who is depending on you?
Although non-climbers and new ones don’t understand this, experienced climbers recognize an increasing scale of risk as you move through the climbing types. For example, you would need to work really hard to die sport climbing. Almost all the risk is only perceived. According to the Accidents in North American Mountaineering (American Alpine Club), the climbing related deaths are in line with normal accidental death rates. However, you move into the alpine environment, there are many objective dangers (rock/ice fall, weather, avalanches and crevasses, etc.) that give a rise to the risk. Add the factors of high altitude mountaineering and the risk-level rises to beyond normal.
Maria Coffey questioned Royal Robbins on this topic. He said, “We have to remember that if we’re talking about true risk, occasionally there has to be a price paid.” She pressed him by asking, “By whom? The people left behind?” “Yes,” he says, “That’s part of the largeness of the price.” The more climbers have others depending on them the less amount of risk they should take. This is not a black and white issue and is a matter
of prayer and counsel.
Wisdom: Are you putting God to the test?
I have had non-climbers imply that I’m putting God to the test by climbing. Are they right? The concept is found in Matthew 4:5-7. It says, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”
Obviously, we aren’t jumping off our climbs expecting God to catch us. However, a general principal can be inferred. By using ropes, protection, and helmets, etc. and becoming experienced before going to the next level, we aren’t putting God to the test. We can confidently enter into a risky situation if it will take an accident for negative outcome to happen. In some situations if we leave the ropes behind or we push our bodies beyond their capacities, we can cross into ungodly risk.
For me, risk does what the sun does for the earth? Risk provides energy for living! It gives vigor, oomph, get-up-and-go to life. But there is a balance. You can have too much sun and you can have too little sun. If you get too little of the sun, what happens? You freeze and die. On the other hand, too much of it and you get burned-up and die. Risk-taking for our own enjoyment must always be below the threshold of not putting God to the test.
Without risk, climbing wouldn’t have the draw it has. Without risk, life wouldn’t have reality. Through the risk of giving man free will, God enjoys a relationship with us. The cost was to send Jesus Christ as our Savior. With that in mind our only response is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind.
Read Part 1
