A few weeks ago, the world, and the world of mountain climbers in particular, received word that one of its greats, the French climber Maurice Herzog, had died at the age of 93.  Herzog is most famous for his 1950 ascent of Annapurna, one of the fourteen so-called "8,000ers," the elite group of Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters (roughly 26,000 feet).  His was the first ascent of a peak this elevation and size.  Though Herzog is rightly remembered for the ascent, he is perhaps better known for his descent, a long and harrowing journey marked by intense cold, storm, and frostbite that resulted in Herzog losing most of his fingers and toes.  But as he wrote in the final line of his account of his climb (Annapurna, published in 1952), "There are other Annapurnas in the lives of men."  Herzog managed to transform his pain into an enduring and inspiring metaphor for the challenges of existence.
     Herzog captured a fundamental truth about human beingness.  Those who seek out challenges, whatever they may be, challenges that stretch them to their very physical, mental, or spiritual limits, are those who most fully understand that happiness is not be found in simply embracing what is.  Real happiness often comes from penetrating deeply into its opposite.  And real joy, the more seminal--and lasting--counterpart to happiness, often emerges from life's darkest tragedies and sorrows.  Ask Herzog, ask Doug Scott, a British climber who, despite breaking both legs in a climb on the Ogre (also in the Himalayas), willed himself to survive and climb again, or ask the Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross, author of Dark Night of the Soul.
     Or ask Jesus, who as, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us, "the author and perfecter of faith, and who for the joy set before endured the cross [crucifixion], despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2).  Like Herzog, like Scott, like St. John, like countless others, so does Jesus capture for us the essential point:  only through seemingly insuperable challenge, of any kind, does genuine wisdom, and joy, come.
     What's your Annapurna?  Whatever it is, make it a matter of your deepest soul.  Make it a matter of you and God.