“If you were a serious mountain climber, scaling the peaks of Nepal might be an ambitious new year’s resolution. But the rules for doing that are changing. Nepal is banning solo climbers from scaling all of its mountains, including the most famous one – Mount Everest, at more than 29,000 feet.

The new rules are meant to keep people safe and also to create jobs for local guides and Sherpas. (Sherpas are elite mountaineers and experts in their local area often hired to travel with climbers) A trip up Everest can set you back tens of thousands of dollars. Most climbers already go in groups anyway. More than 200 people have died on Everest in the past century.” (From Nepal To Ban Solo Climbers On Mount Everest)

You may or may not be making some adjustments to your life this January. Perhaps you’ve set some goals or are trying to set down some new habits. You know better than to make resolutions. Evidence shows that most of us give up on those within the first week of the year. A few may even have some huge goals set like buying a house, starting college, or running a marathon.

Many of our goals and aims in life won’t cost as much as a trip to the peak of Mount Everest. Some, like going to college or raising a child, will cost far more. Many of the everyday hurdles we face, whether we choose them or not, feel more like Mount Everest than they do a hurdle. Whether climbing Mount Everest or negotiating everyday hurdles, you need partners; maybe even a Sherpa. But where could you find them?

Perhaps surprisingly, they are right here in our church body. You would be hard-pressed to identify any life circumstance that people at BP have not faced. This week I’ve spent some time thinking about this question: Who are we? Here is my attempt at an answer.

We are brothers and sisters partnering together to follow Jesus while facing all kinds of difficulty. We are children, senior adults, teens, young adults, middle-aged, single, married, divorced, and widowed. Some have children, some have lots of children, and some no children. We are educated, uneducated, blue collar, white collar, poor and wealthy, though mostly we are in between. Some of us have experienced heart crushing griefs and difficulties with histories you would struggle to believe if you heard the whole story. Some have lived here all our lives while others have lived all over the world. Yet, all of us are trying to grasp what the grace and love of God mean to us in everyday life.

We are conservatives and liberals; politically we are all over the place. There are believers and unbelievers; likely there are even some atheists among us, certainly some practical atheists. Most don’t think we have our act together. Many wrestle with feelings of failure or the fear of it. Others struggle with depression and anxiety. We are learning to be honest about where we are weak and where we struggle with prejudices. We are not trendy, but we do seek to be real. Most of all, we are like all other people thirsting for a place to belong, where we are loved, and prayed for, and encouraged.

I want to urge you to join me in worship this Sunday where we will talk about this in more detail from Revelation 1:9-11 in a message called “Essential Adventure Gear.” You will face chaos this year that will threaten to distort you completely out of shape from who you are imagining yourself to be. You will need some true partners for the adventure, maybe even a sherpa. You definitely need the one true Sherpa, better known as the Shepherd and Overseer of our Souls. (1 Pet. 2:25)
-Gene