Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: – Jeremiah 5:21, KJV

In 1996 twelve mountain climbers perished when a fierce storm enveloped the summit of Mount Everest. Among the victims was 31-year old Andy Harris, one of the guides of the expedition. According to People.com:

On the way down, Harris and [Jon] Krakauer [author of the 1997 book Into Thin Air]  had a puzzling conversation about oxygen tanks. Harris insisted that the spare tanks cached along the route for climbers to use while descending were all empty when they clearly were not. This conversation, Krakauer believes, should have told him that Harris was delusional [from oxygen deprivation], a danger to himself. “Andy was the guide, and I was the client, and Andy was really strong,” he says. “It never occurred to me to worry about him. But I should have.” No one knows what happened to Harris, who was last seen plodding up the summit ridge to assist Hall and Hansen.

Nearly twenty years later, Harris has still not been found, and some have surmised that he walked over a 4,000 foot precipice in his delusional state.

The sad irony of Harris’ death is that he was hovering over the very oxygen canisters that contained his salvation, yet he did not recognize them as having the power to save him. Likewise, so many people know of the Bible, have seen a Bible, and even own a Bible, yet they don’t recognize the Bible for what it contains: the very breath of eternal life. So many see the Bible as having nothing to offer them, and if they die without correcting their mistake, they will walk off the precipice of eternity, bound for hell rather than heaven.

Krakauer regrets not being more insistent with the delusional Harris. Had he done so, he argues, Harris might be alive today. I wonder how much regret will we suffer in heaven when our Lord shows us the number of spiritually delusional people who died eternally because we weren’t insistent enough? Being “insistent enough” doesn’t mean that we act like annoying jerks as we deliver the Gospel. It does mean that we give the truth in love, as God (through Paul) commands, and that we do so with persistence, boldness, and patience – the same way Christ pursued us until we said “Yes!” to His glorious gift of salvation!