Exploration and Survival

Man has a huge desire to explore. Man likes to go where others have not, do what others have not, see things others cannot, experience something unique. To do so man takes risks. That is one of the reasons when I began my study of the Mind of Christ 2 1/2 years ago I picked the Challenger Deep as my metaphor for the study. Challenger Deep is the deepest point on earth, over 36,000 feet, 10,000 feet deeper than Mt. Everest is high. These two conflicting drives in man are held in tension, the need to explore and the need to survive.

The latest issue of National Geographic carries an article entitled "Into the Unknown" about the Mawson expedition called the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE). 31 men from 1911-1914 took on a nearly impossible task of learning all they could about the most uninhabitable part of earth. The stories are no less than amazing. One story is of Mawson making his way with two others 297 miles in 35 days across a northern section of Antarctica from November 10, 1912 to February 8, 2013. There is much to tell, but Mawson returning alone on January 17, 1913 fell into a crevasse being held up by a rope tied to a sled fourteen feet above. He was in wretched physical condition frost-bitten and starving.  Fortunately he had tied knots in the rope at regular intervals. You never know when you might need an extra knot or two in your rope.

He begin pulling himself up hand over hand until he reached the top only to have the overhanging lip of the crevasse break off and send him plunging back down. He was beyond desperation and despair. He thought of slipping out of his harness and going to his death instead of slowly freezing to death. But the words of his favorite poet, Robert Service, flashed through his mind: "Just have one more try-its dead easy to die,/ Its the keeping on living that's hard."

Peter was in a boat filled with frightened and exhausted men. His drive to explore caused him to step out of a boat onto rough and cold waves to do what others only dreamed of, to defy gravity and to walk on water. He received the command to do so from the one who obviously proved it could be done. But, the saw an unseen force-wind. This mysterious entity that could drive sails or topple houses, a friend and an enemy captured his attention away from Jesus, and he began to sink into his watery crevasse. As he did his primal desire to survive kicked in and he cried out, "Lord save me." Fortunately the hand of Jesus was within his grasp, and he lived to die another day.

Peter or Mawson or me? "Its dead easy to die; its the keeping on living that's hard" "Just have one more try or Lord save me!" Faith or fear?; which will determine our course.