THE CLIMBER AND THE ROCK | sermonsfortheworld.com

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Whenever you write to Dr. Hymers always tell him what country you live in, or he cannot answer you. Dr. Hymers’ e-mail is rlhymersjr@sbcglobal.net.

Life is a struggle. Although advantages in life can propel a person to a certain height, there can be a cost to advantage. A person who has been born at the top of the mountain has not had the fearful and momentous experience of the climb. They have not known what it is to question every footstep. They do not know what it means to earn every inch by successive acts of ultimate exertion. They do not know what it means to stumble backwards suddenly without warning or reason and thereby losing the progress they have earned. They do not know what it means to return to the climb after each fall.

They did not have to struggle going up the mountain. Because they have not held their lives in the balance of every step, they are not surefooted. They have no experience in which to process the next ascent, and so they go no further than where their advantage has left them. They are not climbers. In this time, when American Christianity is slipping from its once lofty heights, we need men who have climbed through each day of their lives. We need climbers. We need men like Dr. Hymers.

“The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower” (Psalm 18:2).

Dr. Hymers has been climbing all his life. Dr. Hymers started his climb without advantages. Yet, he knew that he could not remain where he was. He could not remain in the depths of hopeless living and a painful existence. Dr. Hymers knew he had to move from where he was, to escape the great City of Destruction. So Dr. Hymers started to climb. As a young man, he stumbled many times. He was fooled by places that seemingly could hold him, only to give way and send him tumbling, bruised and broken, to start over.

Scarred from the falls, Dr. Hymers had to battle himself before every step of the climb. When his every urge wanted to lay in rest where he had fallen, he forced himself to continue. Dr. Hymers forced himself to study. He forced himself to work. He forced himself, year after year, to wake up at 6:30 in the morning, work for eight hours, and attend college at night. He forced himself to be a preacher. He forced himself to preach without encouragement or help. He forced himself to be in a Chinese church where he was an outsider. He forced himself to win lost souls while he himself felt abandoned and alone. He fought the existential angst and pain of loneliness by helping others. He climbed over the obstacles that life left for him. He did not stop speaking up even while his hands trembled in fear. He did not cringe away from right for the safety of the wrong. He was used to climbing. He was trained by life to fight for every inch. He was slipping, and he was falling, but he kept on climbing. Dr. Hymers made himself to be everything that he is: except for one crucial characteristic. He could not force himself to be a Christian.

Dr. Hymers tried everything in his power to be a Christian. He volunteered for every ministry he could. He arranged his whole life around being a Christian. He suffered the ridicule of friends and family for these efforts. He remained in church with almost unreasonable resolve despite the pain of exclusion and discrimination. He continued in his climb in Christianity, because he knew that there was nothing else worth climbing. Yet, his efforts were hopeless; the farther up he climbed, the farther down he felt. He was placing the weight of his life, his future, his soul, on ministry, education, the Christian life, on anything he could, but could do nothing but lose ground. His tumbling ascent left him as an exhausted traveler in a foreign land. One morning, at Biola University, God showed him where to place the weight of himself. That morning, God showed him where to place his trust. That morning, Dr. Hymers trusted Christ the Solid Rock, and in Christ he stands.