{"id":3781,"date":"2024-07-01T08:48:03","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T12:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3781"},"modified":"2024-07-01T08:48:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T12:48:40","slug":"memento-mori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/memento-mori\/","title":{"rendered":"Memento Mori"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

For most people, climbing Mt. Everest is a peak experience in more ways than one.

Reaching the summit of the 29,032-foot mountain means you can justifiably claim to have stood \u201con top of the world.\u201d

Getting there is also likely to require more stamina, perseverance, courage, and risk-taking than the vast majority of Earth\u2019s fellow citizens will ever be compelled to muster. No wonder climbers experience a peak rush of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Then again, it can also cost you your life.

There are literal reminders of that all along the way to the top. Since expeditions began in the 1920s, more than 300 climbers have succumbed to Everest\u2019s extreme cold, dangerously low oxygen levels, fierce winds, and inhospitable conditions. Eight climbers have died just this year.

At least 200 corpses remain on the mountain, frozen in place. Some, like \u201cGreen Boots\u201d and \u201cSleeping Beauty,\u201d have become familiar landmarks along the steep, ice-covered path to the summit.

As climate change continues to thin Mt. Everest\u2019s snow and ice, exposing more and more of the fallen, the government of Nepal has commissioned teams to bring the bodies down for identification and burial. In the words of Tshiring Jangbu Sherpa, who led a recent retrieval expedition, \u201cIt is extremely difficult.\u201d Teams of climbers risk their own lives to retrieve some of those left behind.

Even as first-time climbers trudge towards the summit seeking a life-defining peak experience, they are compelled to remember their own mortality.

They may talk themselves into believing \u201cthat will never happen to me.\u201d

But one day, of course, their journey will come to an end. No one gets out of this world alive.

A similar message was memorably delivered during the heyday of the Roman Empire when victorious armies were granted the equivalent of a ticker-tape parade.

The conquering soldiers would march in formation before admiring crowds through the center of Rome. Confiscated treasures, the spoils of war, were held aloft for all to see. Captives in chains \u2013 bound for slavery or for gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum \u2013 walked despondently in the rear.

But the spotlight clearly belonged to the commanding general.

Standing in his chariot, literally holding the reins, he wore ceremonial robes. His face was painted red.  A slave, dressed in white, stood behind him, holding above his head a laurel wreath, symbolizing victory.

And every few moments the slave would lean forward and whisper two words into the general\u2019s ear: memento mori.<\/em>

That\u2019s Latin for \u201cremember that you are going to die.\u201d 

Or more loosely translated, \u201cI know you think you\u2019re hot stuff right now, but this moment isn\u2019t going to last. And neither are you. So stay humble.\u201d

Memento mori.<\/em>

Remember that you\u2019re not always right. 
And you\u2019re not always the smartest person in the room.
And you didn\u2019t get your big wins all by yourself.
And you\u2019re not even the source of your next heartbeat or your next breath.
And your life could end even before this day ends.

As Paul reminds us, \u201cSo, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don\u2019t fall\u201d (I Corinthians 10:12).

And as Eugene Peterson renders the same text in The Message<\/em>: \u201cDon\u2019t be so naive and self-confident. You\u2019re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it\u2019s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.\u201d

No matter what you experience today, you\u2019re not really holding the reins.

Pay close attention to what you see on your way up the mountain.

Stay humble.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here For most people, climbing Mt. Everest is a peak experience in more ways than one. Reaching the summit of the 29,032-foot mountain means you can justifiably claim to have stood \u201con top of the world.\u201d Getting there is also likely to require more stamina, perseverance, courage, and risk-taking than the vast… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[450,131,758],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-humility","tag-roman-empire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3784,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions\/3784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}