I Need A Sherpa

A few years ago my family loved to watch a reality show about climbing mount Everest.  There was something captivating and inspiring about what people are willing to sacrifice for a goal.  While I don't share the desire to put my body at great risk for climbing a physical mountain, there are some spiritual parallels that we can draw.

In 2009 we decided to go on a sledding trip in the Sandia Mountains and while we were on our own expedition we were reminded of the ones we had been watching.

Throughout the scriptures prophets have climbed to the top of mountains to commune with God.  The mountain is symbolic of the temple.  In Micah 4 we learn:

1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

 2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Each one of us is on our own journey to the top of the mountain of the lord.  The only problem is that we cannot make it alone.  We need help.

The journey always starts out easy and then progressively gets harder and harder as you are in the process of conditioning yourself to make it to the top.  One cannot simply decide one day to just hike up mount everest.  It takes months of conditioning and preparation just to make it to base camp, and then during the journey there are camps along the way to rest and do more conditioning.  Our spiritual ascend is one of sanctification, a spiritual conditioning.  A preparation to be holy enough to meet God.

So here's my little family starting out at our "base camp" in 2009.  Sadly, I don't think we've been back to the mountain since then to play in the snow.  But it is fun to see how much the kids have grown since then and how much our family has spiritually grown since this trip.

 Below was our traverse across the "Lohtse face"

If you want to be successful and safe while taking on an expedition to the summit, your best chance is with an experienced team captain and a sherpa.  For our family in this little analogy our sherpa is Dad.

What does a sherpa do?  He's in constant communication with the team captain.  He receives guidance and power and authority to act from the captain.  

The captain is watching weather patterns.  Through his telescope he is looking in on the climbers and their abilities, making sure they are on pace.  He is watching the traffic and looking for dangers.  He is the watchman on the watchtower.

The sherpa heeds the council of the watchman.  He helps to guide the team members, check their oxygen levels, help carry the load of someone struggling, make sure the guide ropes are secure and replace missing anchors, remind the team that they can't sit down and rest or they will die.  In my analogy this makes him the priesthood holder.

Below is our "sherpa" giving a pep talk to our then 12 year old daughter because her hands were wet, cold and freezing and she didn't want to continue up the mountain.  She sat down and gave up.

The kids had decided that they wanted to try and sled down this hill that had no sled trails in it.  The only way to get a trail to sled down was to make one ourselves.  This was really hard work and it wore me out.  I was so exhausted that I laid down in the snow.  All I could do was call out for a sherpa in the hopes he would come and help me get up.  It reminds me of the talk President Uchtdorf gave in priesthood session about falling in the snow and not being able to get up.  That was my moment.

Once we got the trail made the kids had fun sliding down it over and over again.

Just like Uchtdorf said in his talk that sometimes we just need someone to come along and remind us that we can get up and keep pushing forward.

The reason I started thinking about this again is because I have been trying to take over the role of sherpa in our family.  It's not like I set out to on purpose.  My husband works a lot and in an effort to help elevate as many burdens as I could from him, I took over things that weren't in my power to do.  I had the best of intentions, but they were not correct.  I had forgotten to apply what Nephi taught when his bow broke in 1 Nephi 16

23 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did ^amake out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow, with a sling and with stones. And I said unto my ^bfather: Whither shall I go to obtain food?

I don't know where we are on our spiritual journey to the summit.  It feels like we are on the Hillary step.  The most dangerous part of the journey and the final push before the summit.  It is where you are most tired, but you are almost there.  You've got to hold onto those guide ropes for dear life.  I told my husband that last night that he was our sherpa.  He's the one that is going to get our family to the summit and it was time for him to take over.  I realized that I was going about this summit attempt all wrong and it's no wonder I feel like giving up right before the summit.  We need priesthood power to make this journey not just the power of me.  I did joke that I probably needed more than 1 sherpa to finish this expedition to drag my sorry butt the rest of the way up the mountain……any volunteers for a brother husband?  hahaha joking!

The cool thing is that I can still access the power of the priesthood and be a sherpa in other ways.  We can all act as guides along the way that help carry the burdens and warn each other of potential dangers and remind each other to hang on to the anchored ropes.  Sherpas are experts in the terrain.  We are experts of our individual trials and can help guide others through theirs.  Which is keeping our baptismal covenants.

Being a sherpa is hard.  You've got to have more strength than those around you and carry more of the load.  You've got to be in constant communication with the team captain and you've got to be able to act. Who is this team captain?  Well here's my answer, found in Doctrine and Covenants 1

 38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame.

 Whether the team captain is the Prophet or the Lord, it mattereth not, because the council and direction is the same.  You have to be listening to the council of the prophet and heeding his warnings and you've got to be in constant communication with the Lord to know all things which ye should do.  

One final thought found in Mosiah 4

27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and ^aorder; for it is not requisite that a man should run ^bfaster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

I thought I had been doing things in proper order, but upon further examination discovered that I had not been and more than anything else, I want to win the prize and make it to the summit with my family standing there with me.