683 Ways to Stay Forever.

Would you like someone to write a book about your next holiday trip? Let’s just hope it won’t be Michael Patrick Ghiglieri. He wrote a 400-page book titled “Over the Edge: Death in The Grand Canyon.” A thriller? No. It is a collection of gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in the Most famous of the world’s seven natural wonders. There had been 683 since the establishment of the national park. 683 ways to stay forever! Merely reading the table of contents would give you the creeps. One horror story follows another horror story, all of them true.

Michael Ghiglieri had been a tour guide for many years and therefore knew best how many of those tragic stories could have been prevented. Many of the accidents included people falling off cliffs or crashing in airplanes. Hikers drowning or being hit by lightning bolts also are rather common. But what do you think is the most frequent cause of death. What is the biggest hazard? Rattlesnakes? No, not a single deadly bite. The answer is much less spectacular. It was the weather. Most people still fall victim to the high temperatures year by year. “Almost routinely— despite the canyon’s infamous heat, its lack of water . . . hikers underestimate levels of thirst,” writes Ghiglieri. A malicious trap: the giant difference of temperature. It’s possible that you start your climb at the upper rim with a comfortable 26 degrees Celsius and reach the bottom of the canyon at 41 degrees Celsius. Remember, the steep climb back to the top lies still ahead!

The second trap: extremely low humidity. Your sweat evaporates immediately. So, you feel as if you’re not sweating at all while losing a lot of water without even moving! Guidebooks say: Keep drinking all the time. Even start a day before your hike! (I hope you can see the spiritual applications flowing here). Take at least 4 litres of water per person. Ghiglieri recalls his record, an unbelievable 11 litres of water on a single trip! There are, apparently, still people who pack a tiny bottle of energy drink and suffer from dehydration after a few kilometres.

We face stressful situations with the same foolishness. You keep going about your daily business with the same greenness as those tourists. We get up in the morning, our mood is at a comfortable 26 degrees, and we think: This is going to be an easy day — half a bottle will do. There are similarities between a water supply for a major hike and our emotional state. Many years ago I experienced ‘burn out’ in my life.

Our sense of being loved; the sense that someone understands and appreciates us; the recognition that someone carries us and cares for us. These are important in our life. It’s precisely this awareness that provides our whole being with energy and power, such as water does for the human body. You will not find the source for this “sense of being loved” within yourself. So, like in the canyon, you need to depend on a constant external liquid supply. And, to paraphrase Ghiglieri: “Almost routinely, despite the infamous heat and lack of water, hikers underestimate their levels of thirst and their need for water.” We live in a world and culture that is not exactly known for its overflowing friendliness, care, and acceptance. In fact, competition, selfishness, and indifference are quite normal. People do not naturally love us; they use us. They challenge us. They ignore us. All this scorches us like the blazing canyon heat and burns up our confidence faster than we realize.

We jump into the day with a tiny buffer against emotional injuries. After a few hours of the day’s heat, however, our wonderful attitude begins to evaporate. Emotional dehydration comes from dealing with people mostly and the situations they bring with them. People can be exhausting, irritating, or obnoxious. If they are smart or good looking they can make you feel stupid or ugly. Sometimes we want to blame others for the negative things in our lives. We forget that we are not responsible for the actions of others, but we are responsible for out reactions. Someone once said life is not what happens to you but what you do with what happens to you.

We end up missing out on many good things because of our parched, selfish condition. The Grand Canyon guidebook says: “At the first symptoms, immediately seek some shade, pause, and drink, drink, drink”—if you have enough water at hand, that is.  What if you are sitting at the bottom of the valley, pressing the last drop out of your small bottle, with the climb up still ahead?

Honestly, the only One who has proven to be a reliable source of strength in my life is God, the omnipresent one. He’s been there before I was; He’ll always be there. Since I know that He loves me, I don’t need to make myself believe anything. My “sense of being loved” has a totally different quality. The daily heat remains the same, but I live at the source. I drink. God assures me that He won’t allow me to dehydrate emotionally. He tells us: “Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 22:17, NIV). God loves me with a never-ending devotion. Sometimes I avidly drink His words. Sometimes I underestimate my thirst and come crawling back parched. But I gain experience. Remember what they say about the toughest canyon days? Start drinking plenty before your hike. I wish I could share with you what I have learnt from Ephesians in the last few weeks. You should take a pen, ruler and highlighters and go and learn it for yourself!

It’s a cliché verse, but a goodie: “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30.) The tragedy is we don’t always come, we stay away. We struggle on our own through the heat of the valley, and some die from dehydration.