Overcoming a Mountain of Fear

It really is possible —in Christ?

In June of 1924, at the age of thirty-eight, George Mallory—one of Britain's greatest mountain climbers—died. Having tried and failed twice before, he was attempting yet again to reach the summit of Mount Everest when he disappeared. It wasn't until 1999 that his frozen body was discovered by another expedition—only two thousand feet short of the summit.

Some time after Mallory’s disappearance, his friends held a banquet in England to honor him. Some of the climbers who had survived that ill-fated expedition were in attendance. At the close of the banquet, a surviving team member stood up and looked around at the photos of Mallory and his comrades that had been hung on the walls. Then, in tears, he turned to face a huge picture of Mount Everest behind the banquet table. “Mount Everest,” he said, “you defeated us once, you defeated us twice, you defeated us three times. But we shall someday defeat you, because you can’t get any bigger and we can!”

For many of us, fear is the Mount Everest of our lives. Like a towering, immovable mountain, it overwhelms us and paralyzes us, convincing us that the rewards are not worth the risks.

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