That’s Who We Are

You may remember that in 1953 Edmund Hillary was the very first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. What you may not know is that he had a partner in his success. His name was Tenzing Norgay. Not only did Tenzing climb the mountain with him but on the way back down the mountain, Hillary fell and was almost lost. In fact, he would have been lost except that Tenzing Norgay pulled him back up the cable and saved his life. Edmund Hillary lived to tell a great story only because of this help from an unknown man. Much later, someone asked Norgay why he didn’t make more of it, why he didn’t boast about his role in this great feat, he said, “We mountain climbers help each other.”

I admire the humility and the servant-like quality of the man.

As the pastor of a church, I see this same attitude in the people whom I serve all the time. There are women and men who regularly work hard behind the scenes to help others: leading Bible studies for children, singing in a choir, cleaning up the property of the church, feeding the hungry in their neighborhoods, building houses for the working poor. These are my heroes. They put in countless hours, get very little or no credit, and they do it simply because “We Christians help others. That’s who we are.”

Let us pray: God of Hope, I thank you for my real-life heroes; for all those who give deeply of themselves, not for power or glory or honor -but simply because they love you. Grant each of us today a Christ-like attitude. We pray in his name. Amen.