Last Fall I was at the old Lion’s Den in Nooksack… suddenly the lights went out.  Debbie Redinger comes running in  a panick, “Come out and look, it looks like a bomb exploded.”  Two blocks away, in front of the old post office in Nooksack, smoke was filling the street and engulfing the Nooksack City.  We could tell there was a single source, and it did look like I’d imagine a bomb detonated, but no explosion. 

I walked home, by this time utility crews and police officers were arriving.  A power line for no apparent reason had snapped and hit the ground.  The smoke was billowing, the fire powerful and the heat intense.  The ground was on fire.  3-4 months later I was walking by, and this is what I found…. (show and tell of the melted dirt…).  I am amazed at the transformation… as far as I can tell, this is melted dirt…the fire was so intense… the blazing heat, for a very long time…. It has its own beauty…

It was May 25, 2006, Dan Mazur stood within a two hour hike of the summit of Mount Everest; a thousand feet from realizing a life-long dream. Climbers call the realm above twenty-six thousand feet “the death zone.” Temperatures hover below zero. Sudden blizzards stir blinding snow. The atmosphere is oxygen starved. A British climber had died ten days prior to Dan Mazur’s attempt. Forty climbers who could have helped, chose not to do so. They passed him by on the way to the summit. Everest can be cruel.

At 7:30 AM with the air still, morning sun brilliant, and hopes high, Mazur spotted a set of “tracks.” At the end of the tracks sat a man with gloves off, chest bare, near death. This man turned out to be “Lincoln Hall”. Twelve hours earlier his team had left him on the mountain. His team thought that they had left his body on the slope; and yet, after spending the night at twenty below zero with no oxygen, Lincoln Hall was still alive.

Mazur was face to face with a “miracle”. He was also face to face with a choice. Do we pass by on the other side or do we attempt a rescue. A rescue attempt would have profound risks. The descent was already treacherous, even more so with the weight of a dying man. Besides, how long would Hall survive? No one knew. The three climbers had to choose: abandon their dream or abandon Lincoln Hall. They chose to abandon their dream.

Their decision to save Hall’s life stirs a great question. Would we do the same? Sacrifice our ambitions, schedules, and goals to help someone else? We all make such decisions daily. Not on Mt. Everest, but in homes with spouses and children, at school with friends,  at work, and in church with fellow Christians. The Question remains the same: Who comes first, do they or do I?