Climbing up the face

[hethathathears]

The lesson was on obedience to the commandments. I thought that it was going very well until young Chad raised his hand. At age 13, he was very popular amongst his peers at school and didn't seem to be buying into the whole faith in the Lord Jesus Christ concept. He seemed to be torn between the worlds way and standards and that of our Lord. His question was no surprise. He asked, Brother Hethathathears, "Why can't I just go out and have fun with my friends and go to their parties and all, and then I can repent latter, go on a mission and then get married in the temple." I responded with the following story from my youth.

In 1981, it was my senior year of High School. My wicked step mother sent me away to a boarding school that was called, Sandia View Academy. It was a 7th Day Adventist school. Although I was the only Mormon in the school, I still enjoyed making friends and learning about their doctrine. And in the distance, high over looking our campus was the beautiful giant Sandia mountain.

The year went by fairly uneventful, and as it came time for the senior party to graduate, we were given the opportunity to plan a senior party outing. The powers to be chose a day hike that consisted of going up the North side of the mountain. It was a fairly beautiful hike, and yet it wasn't too advance, just having a slight incline as it switch backed up the north side. We would take the hike which was about 4 hours to the top where we would eat our lunches up at glass lake, and then we would turn around and come home. The plan was presented and approved. All the seniors were excited about getting out of school and spending the day on the mountain.

When the day finally came, we all got up at 6 o'clock in the morning and boarded the bus by 6:30 a.m. and by 7:45 a.m. we were all unloading from the bus at the bottom of the mountain. Dean Kruger got up in front of our group and instructed us to all stick to the plan, and by all means, stay on the trail, and with those instructions he set us off on our way.

As I began taking off, I was called back by David Leach and his buddies. They said, yo Hethathathears, as you know, the hike up the North side of the mountain is a pretty lame hike. It is for first graders and grandmas. No real excitement. I group of us (3 guys and 4 girls) are going to go around to the south side of the mountain and do a little cave exploration, if you know what I mean, and after about an hour of that, we will just climb up the face of the mountain, and be up to the lake before anyone else. We just need a forth guy.

My mind raced as the temptation was presented before me. I knew the girls and they were all very cute, and the chance to go explore underground caves sounded appealing as did climbing up the face of the mountain, however, the risk of getting caught doing something that stupid and running the risk of getting kicked out of school for breaking the rules seemed to weight on my better judgement.

"I think I'll passed," I said, "I'm just going to stick with the rest of the group."

Dave quickly came back, "what, are you afraid of the dark, or something? Or maybe Mormon's are just too wimpy to climb the face." His mocking continued as the others joined in, until finally I just said, "Look, I'm following the plan, pure and simple, but you are calling me a wimp. I will tell you what I will do. I will bet you $20.00 I will get to the top before any of you. And then we will see who the wimp is."

"Easiest money I ever made, bragged Dave. You got a bet. You go ahead and take your granny hike with the rest of the ladies, while we go and do some exploring, and then of course, when you finally get to the top, you can give me your money too."

His words made my blood boil. Calling me a wimp and all. I decided to show him, and so with all the energy I could muster, I flew up the North side of the Mountain. I passed everyone. I even pass Dean Kruger. And sure enough, by 11:23 a.m. I was the first on to reach mirror lake. I basked in my glory as I felt confident that I would be able to show up Dave in front of the girls and the rest of the senior class.

Over the next couple of hours the rest of the senior class straggled in, but as time passed, Dean Kruger and the other teachers were looking a bit concerned. It seemed that they had lost 7 of their seniors. As Mr. Kruger looked down the North side of the Mountain, I went over to the south side and looked down the face. It was a sheer 200 foot drop down.

By 2:15 the teachers were looking very concerned. I decided to come clean, and I confessed what the others had planned. With all hast, the entire senior class went down to the bottom of the mountain. By then it was a little after 6:00 p.m. Search and rescue was quickly called out to find the lost students. The majority of the students were sent back to the school, while I and 3 others as well as the teachers were allowed to assist in searching for our 7 friends.

At 9:43 p.m. our search and rescue party found the missing students. They were all 7 stranded on a ledge about a 3rd way up the face. Some of them were injured and they had tried to advance up the face and the mountain gave way and set the tumbling down to the ledge. One had a broken leg. Another broke her arm. And they all had sustained cuts and bruises. Some were pretty bad. Helicopters were called out and they were all lifted to the nearest hospital.

I explained to my student and to Chad that the gospel is a lot like our journey on that mountain. Our goal it to get to the top, the Celestial Kingdom, and our Savior has given us a plan to follow, and ever winding path leading up ward. It may not always be exciting, but the journey is always beautiful. And yet there will always be those who try to entice you away from the path. Ones that will promise you more excitement, more thrills, and they will promise you that it will all work out, because when you are ready, you can always climb up the face of the mountain to get to the top.

But the main point I made to my students was that of all the people who try to get to the top by climbing the face, so few ever make it. The truth is, most end up never making the climb or if they do falling off for their eternal destruction.

Edited June 10, 2008 by hethathathears
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