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 PrintableVersion Facing upFaith on EverestFACING UP Facing Up by Bear Grylls is the story of a remarkable journey to the summit of Everest. The writer was a member of the British 1998 Everest Expedition and when he reached the top at the age of 23, he was the youngest Briton to have achieved that goal. Nowhere in the book are we told what Bear's Christian or first name is - 'Bear' was, he tells us, a nickname given to him in childhood by his sister, Lara. Neither do we read much about his father, except at the beginning, when he, a former Royal Marine, appears as the source of Bear's love of climbing. Life saversThe book is dedicated to two Sherpa friends, Pasang and Nima, who saved Grylls's life when he fell into a hidden crevasse, and to Shara, then his girlfriend and now his wife, who was, he says, 'the reason for his coming home.' Grylls himself had survived a serious accident when his parachute failed to open properly and his back was broken, while training with the Army. Mercifully he survived and recovered. At the age of 18 he had trekked for some months in the foothills of the Himalayas and had developed something of a yen to attempt the ultimate feat of getting to the top of Everest. The book opens with a quotation from Psalm 121: 'I lift my eyes up to the mountain - where does my help come from? my help comes from you Lord, maker of heaven, creator of the earth.' It closes with another: 'You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God' Matthew 5. 2 (The Message Version). Despite occasional vulgarities and swear words, born, no doubt, out of critical experiences in the army and at extreme altitudes and recorded with remarkable honesty, there are many evidences of a man who knows and loves the Lord. On one occasion, while getting ready for the climb at Base Camp (17,450 ft.), he fell down a crevasse and was miraculously rescued by his Sherpa companions. That night, alone in his tent, he wrote: 'I just pray with my whole heart never to go through such an experience again. Tonight, here alone, I put in words: "Thank you for helping me, my Lord and my friend".' (p. 90). At Camp 2 (21,200 ft) he wrote: 'The more time I spend here the more I believe the only way to survive is to nuzzle close to Jesus' (p. 145). As he contemplated moving up to Camp 3 (24,500 ft.) he wrote: 'What I had seen so far stunned me in its raw majesty, but I felt there was more. My eyes and heart were for the summit, and my dream was to reach it with the Person who had created it' (p. 149). At one point he was taken ill with a debilitating chest infection and was held back from climbing on medical advice. He became frustrated and even began to blame God - 'Maybe he hadn't even been with me,' he thought. Then as the night wore on he remembered the words of a dying great-uncle, spoken to his own grandfather, who had relayed them to him years before: 'Remember this if you remember nothing else. When God goes, everything goes. Never let your faith leave you. Promise me.' He goes on: 'The words rang in my head. I said out loud, "I won't, I promise".' (p. 186). The Lord's strengthBack in Base Camp on May 27 (1998) and just before the final attempt to reach the summit he made his last diary entry. It included this: 'I just hope for the good Lord's strength in everything ahead. I pray for his protection on the mountain, and I long for his health to fill my body. Thank you . . . oh, and a good night's sleep would be superb' (p. 193). At Base Camp he had received a letter from his 92 year-old grandfather. It included a sentence that rang in his head as he made the final ascent. 'Keep on in there,' said the old man, 'your struggles are a triumph for guts and godliness.' The words 'guts and godliness' struck him hard and he comments: 'It was all that I aspired to. I knew that my grandfather understood me' (p. 219). Eagle's wingsAs the final push was about to begin, Bear says he reached into the top pouch of his rucksack and pulled out a few scrumpled pages wrapped in plastic. He had brought them just for this moment and so took them out and read them carefully. They were the words of Isaiah 40.27-31: 'Even the youths shall faint, and the young men shall utterly fall; but those who wait upon the lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not grow faint.' He comments: 'I felt that this was all I had up here. My God was the only person I felt who understood me. I knew that back home my family would be strangely unaware of what I was going through. These words were my only comfort. They would ring around my head for the next night and day as I climbed' (p. 236). At the end of the book Grylls tells us that he had carried a sea-shell from a beach on his native Isle of Wight all the way to the top of Everest and back to the family home on Wight. When he got home it fell out of his kit. Inside it he had inscribed words that, he says, had meant much to him when he fell ill at Base Camp and that were as true now as they were then. They meant the earth to him: 'Be sure of this, that I am with you always, even unto the end of the world' (p. 282). Guts and godlinessBehind Bear's faith and his guts and godliness there were obviously devoted and godly family members - a great-uncle, a grandfather and a wise and believing mother, who wrote to him: 'We do miss you so much and think and pray for you continually. You are in God's safe hands ...' (p. 171). Earlier in the book he had recounted how he got himself into the 1988 Expedition and how after doing so he began to feel uncertain about what he had done. He then quotes a saying of his mother: 'Commitment is doing the thing you said you'd do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.' She was, he says, absolutely right; the only problem was that he was now on the end of such a commitment! With guts and godliness he carried it out. Back home he was often asked if he had found God on the mountain. His answer was 'No, you don't have to climb a mountain to find a faith. I actually began my faith while sitting up a tree as a 16 year-old. It is the wonderful thing about God; he is always there, wherever you are. That's what best friends are for. If you asked me did he help me up there, then the answer would be yes. In the words of the great John Wesley, when asked by some cynic whether God was his crutch, he gently replied: "No, my God is my backbone." He was right.' Norman Shields© Evangelicals Now - December 2001 |
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