Climbing Mount Everest

In John Eldredge's books, he often talks about climbing adventures. On pp. 216-217 of "Wild at Heart," Eldredge shares how God related climbing to the adventures in life:

In the past year or so I've made a number of decisions that make no sense unless there is a God and I am his friend. I left my corporate job and struck out on my own, following a dream I've long feared. I've picked up the shattered pieces of a vision I lost when my best friend and partner Brent was killed in a climbing accident. What feels most crazy of all, I've opened my self to friendship again and a new partner, and we're heading out where Brent and I left off. The battle has been intense; a steep ascent that's taking everything I've got. The stakes I'm playing at now are immense -- financially, sure, but more so spiritually, relationally. It's requiring a concentration of body, soul, and spirit I've never before endured.

What is perhaps the hardest part is the misunderstanding I live with from others on a daily basis. Sometimes the winds howl around me; other times I fear I'll fall. The other day I was feeling way out on the end of my rope, cutting a path across a sheer face of risk. Out of my heart rose a question. What are we doing, God?

We're climbing Everest.

Life indeed can be challenging, but we are bolstered when God is with us.

Meeting God in the mountains

I often feel closer to God when I'm in nature. The awe of His creation inspires me.

Such was the case too for Lygon Stevens, a mountain climber who died in January in an avalanche on Little Bear Peak in southern Colorado. Stevens wrote 15 journals during her life, and her parents have taken text from her writings to publish a book, "Cairns for the Climb".

The Coloradoan ran an article on Dec. 7 about Stevens' story that included some of what was in her journals:

The book includes climbs in Colorado, Alaska's Denali (Mount McKinley) and Ecuador, as well as her last entry, next to a blurred photo of her climbing the west ridge of Little Bear Peak, the last image of Lygon, taken hours before she died.

'She really felt that God spoke to her when she put pen to paper,' her father said.

Though Nick (Lygon's father) had encouraged Lygon to keep a journal from the time she was 10 years old, he was surprised by the amount of writing his daughter left behind.

Her parents saw about 10 percent of her writing before they started unearthing the journals.

Some of the writing is what you would expect from a teenager and young woman, including insecurities about school and appearance, Nick said.

But they found nothing guile or sneaky.

Many of her poems and essays document Lygon's growing faith and understanding of God, much of it in the context of her mountain-climbing adventures.

'I climb because I love the mountains ... and I meet God there,' one undated journal entry reads.

"Cairns for the Climb" is available at www.heightsoffaith.org and at Probasco's Christian Bookstore, 344 N. Lincoln Ave. in Loveland, Colo.