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S E P T 2 0 1 5 O C T
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A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAPLAIN
To some, the thought of not making it to the top may prevent
further ascent. Others may reflect, pause, and think it was not worth
the effort and live with regret. Some may view the calamity as proof life
is not fair and descend, instead, into the valley of vindictiveness, de-
spair, and depression. Still others may question their very foundational
values faced with the threatening dangers of life’s “avalanches”.
We may be able to take comfort and firm resolve in someone else
who made it to the summit but failed to reach his goal, although he
was able to see it from afar. Moses, of the Old Testament in the Bible,
led God’s people from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land. On
the arduous journey, Moses’ frustration with the people caused him to
make an “avalanche” mistake by claiming, in one instance, the blessing
of refreshing water from a rock was his doing rather than God’s. Be-
cause of that, Moses was prevented from entering the Promised Land
but was blessed to see it from a mountaintop.
Lesser men would have given up or, worse yet, turn their back on
God. Not Moses! He continued his leadership of God’s people with
renewed vigor and commitment to serve... even when it meant he
would not reach the goal! We would do well to follow Moses’ example
and continue in our effort even when life’s avalanches come out of
nowhere.
In our careers and in our personal lives, the words of Theodore
Roosevelt delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910
would be worth remembering:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them bet-
ter. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs,
who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error
and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows
great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy
cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that
his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know
victory nor defeat.”
Blessings as we journey together towards life’s mountaintops!
Dan Bateman, Chaplain
586.484.3164
Encountering the Unexpected
On Your Way to the Mountaintop
by Dan Bateman
As 2015 winds down and we continue our theme of “Mountain
tops and Valleys”, events on Mount Everest earlier this year
reminded me how treacherous the trip to the mountaintop can be. On
April 25th, an earthquake in Nepal triggered an avalanche on Mount
Everest resulting in the deaths of nineteen climbers and guides who
were at base camp on the mountain.
If you’ve seen the video of the avalanche taken by one of the
climbers, the weather was clear and bright prior to the disaster. When
the ground began to shake, the mountain climbers thought it just
something odd as evidenced by their brief and quizzical conversation.
While they felt something was amiss, it was only upon seeing the spec-
tacular and deadly snow plume rushing down the mountainside did
the climbers realize their lives were in danger as they used the precious
few seconds they had to find cover. Terror and fear can be heard in their
voices as the avalanche spread over them like the angel of death men-
tioned in the ten plagues of the Bible. Just as quickly, the avalanche
passed and the surviving climbers began the sorrowful task of recover-
ing bodies of friends and guides.
The irony of this calamitous event was the cause of the avalanche
itself. It was not tons of snow unable to be supported by its own weight.
Neither was it an unrelenting snowfall of such magnitude the moun-
tain itself could not contain the snow. And, no, it was not the perilous
perch of the base campers that threatened their lives. Ironically, the
avalanche was caused by an earthquake whose epicenter was 140 miles
west of Mount Everest.
In some ways, it mimicked a devastating ocean tsunami hundreds
of miles from an earthquake epicenter. But, in this case, instead of mil-
lions of gallons of ocean water, it was tons and tons of snow racing and
plunging downward from great heights; increasing in momentum and
in life-crushing force as it hurtled down the mountain.
In life, like in mountain climbing, the real danger facing us may not
be readily apparent. Oh, we can prepare for the known and potentially
expected inherent dangers of mountain climbing. We can train and pur-
chase all the right equipment for the known hazards of scaling heights.
But, no matter how much preparation we make, nothing prepares us for
the unexpected danger that presents itself from an unknown quarter.
We can learn some lessons of life from the devastating tragedy
of the Mount Everest avalanche. While the analogy may be stretched
somewhat, there is still value in realizing that in life, as in mountain
climbing, there are unexpected dangers from events you could not
possibly expect. The epicenter of the Nepal earthquake triggered an
avalanche 140 miles away much like a series of events in life, wholly
unrelated to your climb, can have devastating consequences.
The overarching lesson in scaling the mountaintops of life, with
all its known dangers, does not denigrate the value inherent in the ef-
fort to reach the summit both in life and career. We face setbacks on
our life journey all the time. And while we can expect and prepare for
the usual, it is the unexpected event that can literally stop us in our
tracks as we trek upward.