I was focused on reaching the summit. I was free-climbing—scaling the cliff face without safety ropes. I’d gone 70 feet so far. I had about 100 feet left to go.
I swiped the sweat from my forehead and prepared for my next move. This section was tricky; the cliff-face was smooth and flat. Not many places to grip, save for a baseball-size handhold just within reach of my right hand. I’d use this to hoist myself up. My fingers closed around it.
Crack!
The rock crumbled in my hand! I flailed around for something to grab. The dizzying drop spun below me. My left hand tightened on my remaining handhold, my feet awkwardly bracing the wall. My heart pounded in my ears as I tried to get my bearings. I clung desperately to the cliff face. I could feel my left hand cramping up.
I’m a dead man, I thought. My mind flashed to my little brother, Russ, who’d stayed back at base camp. How would our friend Roger break the news to him?
It was June 1991. Russ, Roger and I were on a much-anticipated expedition in the Sierra Nevada. Roger and I had been climbing together for years, but this excursion was Russ’s first.
Esta historia es de la edición June/July 2020 de Mysterious Ways.
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Esta historia es de la edición June/July 2020 de Mysterious Ways.
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Ivy Dishes
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The Duet
“Can you perform a hymn for us next week?” my pastor asked me after Sunday service.
The Girl in the Dream
Was this a church? The high, vaulted ceilings made it seem like one—almost but not exactly.
News From Around Our Wonderful World
Liverpool, England Joanne Carr is hailing her son, Dougie McInerney, as her guardian angel.
A Light in the Blizzard
I stepped on the gas and shifted into drive, then reverse, then back into drive again.
Straight From the Fish's Mouth
Florence, Italy. I’d been there before on one of those scruffy five-dollar-a-day youth-hostel jaunts through Europe, but now, just graduated from college, I was wondering what to do with my life.
Divine Callings
Have you ever felt called to a purpose?
Dad's Voice
As I reached to turn off the lamp on my bedside table, my eyes fell on the card my brother Isaac had given each of us siblings on what would have been Dad’s sixty-eighth birthday.
Ben's Answer
It was midafternoon, and I was already curled up on the couch in the living room with no plans to move.
A Doll's Hat
My fears around the surgery built all day.... God, please let me be as strong as my young patients are.