Jack Higgens is a famous spy-thriller author who has written 60 novels. His most famous work is The Eagle Has Landed, which sold over 50 million copies. After all of his success, he was asked, “What do you wish that you’d known as a boy that you know now?” Higgens didn’t take long to answer. He said, "When you get to the top, there's nothing there."
Don't wait to get to the end of your life's pursuit only to discover you've been climbing the wrong mountain! The meaning and significance we seek won't be found atop the mountain of personal accomplishments. To be satisfied with what we find at the top we must follow the path God has called us to along the way. We must find His path up the hill by serving His purposes during our ascent. Then, and only then will we find meaning and fulfillment atop our mountain.
"Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight" (Psalm 119:35)
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Jon Krakauer's life's pursuit was to successfully scale Mt. Everest. In May of 1996, he did just that. Disaster struck during the descent, and twelve of his team members were killed. For that his expedition became famous (or, infamous, as it were). The actual ascent became lost in tragedy. Nevertheless, he recalls it in the first pages of his bestselling book, INTO THIN AIR:
Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care. … I snapped four quick photos … then turned and headed down. My watch read 1:17 P.M. All told, I'd spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world.
Few of us will spend even five minutes on top of the world. But should we be so fortunate, we have no reason to believe that our experience will be any more fulfilling than Joh Krakauer's. That's because the meaning and significance we long for can't be found atop Mt. Everest, or in any other experience. It is only offered to us in the person of God Himself.
No matter how grand our goals or how spectacular our accomplishments or how hard we work to achieve them, they will fail to fulfill us in the way we hope. These are but vain idols, they will leave us, like Mr. Krakauer, standing there staring "absently at the vastness" below us.
"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
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If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.
- Chinese Proverb
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35). "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered" (Proverbs 11:25).