facing a mountaininstead of reading my bible, im watching national geographic. it's surprisingly edifying... well, God speaks in various ways... this is my little heresy for today... so this guy, John, lost his friend during his climb on the Everest, but didn't give up his passion for rock climbing. just the look of the rock that he was going to conquer made me sick in my stomach. it looked 90 degrees steep. yick... he admited that "fear is a part of the equation" but looked determined to overcome that fear... meanwhile, i was thinking - this guy must be nuts... after almost a day of climbing, a storm hit, and John and his boys had to turn back. i bet he felt no pleasure in his retreat but that looked like a wise thing to do. two days later, after the storm faded, John hit the wall with new strength. the rock was unstable, John's hands were bleeding but he kept on climbing. it took 10 days to reach the top. on the top, John took out a flag and everybody looked happy... "John has reached his goal," - the commentator said. Lessons learned: 1) can't let past failures hold back from future achievements 2) what's determinative is not the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome it 3) sometimes it's wise to turn back 4) turning back is not equal to giving up 5) no pain, no gain TIME TO STUDY FOR THE BAR!!!!! | 
