If at first you don’t succeed, then try and fail again! Well, that’s not how the saying goes, but that’s what Phillip Vasto did.
Mr. Vasto hails from Brooklyn, New York, but on a recent trip to Arizona, he decided to climb a mountain near Flagstaff.
Most of us think of Arizona as a warm paradise in the winter, and some places are—near Phoenix, for example. But Flagstaff sits at 7,000 feet above sea level, and Vasto planned to hike up Humphrey’s Peak. The summit’s elevation is 12,633’. Which means, in early March, you’re going to run into snow—especially this year!
Mr. Vasto set out on the 10-mile loop trail at 2:30 p.m. Once darkness fell, though, he lost his way, disoriented on the snow-covered trail. After a call for help, search and rescue crews found him and delivered him to safety.
“If at first you don’t succeed….”
The next day, Mr. Vasto, determined to reach the summit, headed out again the next morning at 9:00, confident that gave him plenty of time. And it should have.
Except he fell, injured his leg, and started feeling numb and dizzy. Then he noticed his phone battery was getting low, so once again he dialed 911.
The rescue team urged him not to make it a three-peat!
Rescued from Drowning!
Reading the story got me thinking about my involvement in rescue efforts. They’ve been few and far between, fortunately.
One of those occurred at teen youth camp. The other adult and I took a bunch of guys to a pool not far from the church camp, and it was the strangest pool I’ve ever been in. It looked like something out of a horror movie—felt kind of creepy crawling in the dark water.
The construction itself, too, was odd. Most pools gradually slope from the shallow to the deep end. Not this one. Was a consistent 3 ½ feet for two-thirds of the pool, then a sudden drop off at the 8-foot deep end. Thing is, because the pool’s darkness, you couldn’t see where the drop off was.
Everyone’s having a grand old time. I’m barely in the deep end doggy-paddling, and the other adult was in the “shallow end,” but unknowingly right at the edge of the abyss.
Suddenly, he slipped off the edge and panicked, arms flailing, slipping beneath the surface. When he came up gasping for air, he had a look of fear and started to go under again.
I was just a couple of feet away, so on impulse, I rushed toward him and pushed him as hard as I could back toward the ledge. Thankfully, he found his footing, stood up, settled down, and breathed out a sigh of thanks.
Rescued from Folly!
My own experience of being rescued is a bit different. Actually, it’s a lot different.
49 years ago this summer, I was two months past my 16th birthday, and took a trip to Gunnison, Colorado with my high school German club. The annual National German Club Convention (can you believe there was such a thing??) was being held on the campus of Western Colorado University.
Honestly, I wasn’t much interested in the German stuff—I have no idea what was offered in terms of workshops and the like. I was more fixated on the nearby mountains and being outdoors. July in Colorado, after all! So, a couple of friends and I ditched the convention venue and headed up “W” mountain one day.
Something else intrigued us teen guys.
Coors.
Clearly, I was hanging with the wrong crowd and got caught up in the curiosity of trying the brew made from ice-cold mountain spring water—to echo a commercial.
So, like a fool, another 16-year-old guy and I walked to a nearby convenience store, grabbed a couple of 6-packs from the cooler, and made our way to the cashier—doing our best to be nonchalant as if we’d done this dozens of times. She served as rescuer #1 when she insisted on seeing my 2-month-old driver’s license, took one look, and picked up the phone…to call the Gunnison police.
“Now what?” I gulped to myself.
Five minutes later, rescuer #2 had my buddy and me in the back seat of his squad car, heading toward the station.
He led us to his office, sat us down in chairs across from his desk, asking questions, writing answers, with a stern look on his face and a serious tone in his voice.
I wondered how long we’d be in jail for this…would we miss our bus back to Illinois…would my parents leave me to rot in a dank, dirty Gunnison, Colorado jail cell…?
That’s when rescuer #3 came in the office. I heard him mutter something in the interrogator’s ear about not actually making the purchase, then he stood aside.
Officer-behind-the-desk frowned at us, looked me right in the eyes, and asked, “If I let you go today, will you try to do this again?”
“No, sir!” I promised. As did my buddy.
“Will you go back to the store and hassle the clerk?”
“No way, sir!” We promised.
“All right, then. Since you have no record and this is your first offense, I’ll let you go this time. But it better never happen again!”
“Yes, sir. It won’t, sir! Thank you, sir.” We meekly mumbled.
And that was it. We were released and walked out into the free, fresh Colorado air! Phew!
So, Rescuer #1 rescued me from the stupidity of actually making the purchase, thereby committing a crime.
Rescuer #2 rescued me by putting a healthy fear in me, delivering me from ever again wanting to do something so stupid.
Rescuer #3 rescued me with the law! Apparently, he did some checking and found out that since we hadn’t actually purchased the goods, we couldn’t be charged with a crime.
I’m grateful for those rescuers who delivered me from who-knows-what.
Rescued Forever!
But I’m even more grateful for a far greater deliverance… a gracious deliverance by Divine rescue!
In His grace, as Paul writes, the Lord Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us [lift us, take us out, deliver us] from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4)—referring to the ultimate destruction coming upon the “age.” By His sacrifice on the cross for my sin’s debt, Jesus rescued me from the penalty that sinfulness otherwise deserves.
In His grace, God “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13)—referring to rescue from the soul- and life-destroying power of sin, experienced as consequences in life and eternity.
And in His grace, Peter declares, “the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations…” (2 Peter 2:9)—referring to rescue from the various trials of life that could otherwise crush the soul. Note, the rescue doesn’t mean an absence of trials, but deliverance from their soul-crushing power.
I’m grateful for the search and rescue team that found Phillip Vasto—both times!
I’m grateful that I was close to my drowning friend and could push him to safety.
I’m grateful that I was caught and chastened in my teenage folly.
But I’m eternally grateful for the soul-delivering rescue accomplished by my gracious God and Savior, Jesus.
