The Joy of Advent

Hello Everyone,

George Mallory was the famed mountain climber who would have been the first person ever to reach the top of Mount Everest. In the early 1920’s he led a number of attempts to scale the mountain, eventually being killed in the third attempt in 1924. His body was found in 1999, well preserved by the snow and ice, 27,000 feet up the mountain, just 2000 feet from the peak. Give up he did not. His body was found face down on a rocky slope, head toward the summit. His arms were extended high over his head. His toes were pointed into the mountain; his fingers dug into the loose rock, refusing to let go even as he drew his last breath. 

In 1922, when Mallory was asked why climb Everest this is the reply he gave:

“If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy the joy of life.. That is what life means and what life is for.”

We pursue joy like George that we can never keep when Christ took joy at a cost unimaginable and gave it to us as a gift. This is the meaning of Christmas. That what is good and precious in your life need never be lost and what is evil and undesirable in your life can be changed. The fears that the few good things that bring you joy are slipping through your fingers, and the frustrations that the bad things you hate about yourself or your situation can’t be changed. These fears and these frustrations are what the advent of Christ came to destroy. These frustrations that we face are always there because that fight and struggle for joy never leaves us. Why not stop fighting for something that you will never achieve and take eternal joy as a gift? 

As Carli and I are spending this Advent season with friends and family, we pray that our joy is in Christ and that our happiness is not in something that doesn't last. 

We love all of you!