Sun, 4 August 2019
Mount Everest is the world’s tallest peak. It is remote, rugged and foreboding. Over three hundred climbers have died in pursuit of its peak and many of their bodies still lie frozen where they fell. Given these facts, something quite surprising happened this summer. There was a traffic jam on Everest!
Due to weather, typically only a few weeks in May are suitable for the ascent. This year, bad conditions reduced that window of time to a few days. For that reason, hundreds of climbers attempted the summit on the same day. Because there is a single rope that lines the last leg of the journey, it became terribly congested and torturously slow. In the so-called “death zone” of altitude, that is a recipe for disaster. Eleven climbers died during this season’s window.
One of the saddest cases in Everest lore is that of a British climber named David Sharpe. He was an experienced mountaineer. He decided that he would try a solo summit without the aid of supplemental oxygen. On his way down he stopped. Not all of the reasons for his pause are known. What is known is that 40 different climbers passed him on the trail. Though they saw his distress, no one rendered aid. All were too focused on their agenda.
Oh, that at least one of the climbers would have known and applied the “Golden Rule” that Jesus gave us! You know it: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Had someone done for David what they surely would have wanted someone else to have done for them, he likely would have lived to climb another day.
Commentator William Barclay long ago said that the Golden Rule is the “Mount Everest” of Jesus’ teachings. It is needed both on the mountain top and in the valleys of life. Join us this Sunday at Istrouma as we unpack its meaning and encourage one another to apply it to life.
Culture Flip “The Golden Rule” Matthew 7:12
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”(7:12a).
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”(7:12b).
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them,for this is the Law and the Prophets”(7:12c).
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