The Accident

God used a near tragedy on a mountain to bring this young man back to himself.

By Howard Wilson

That could have been you.”

It wasn't a bold voice that spoke those words. There was just something inside that gripped me as I stared down into the icy blue depths of the crevasse. A few hours earlier, two of my climbing party had plunged into a similar slash in the ice, and disappeared from sight. I will never forget the horror of that moment.

The accident happened on a brilliantly sunny day. Nine of us had left our high camp at Lake Ann around 4 a.m. for the summit of Mount Shuksan in northern Washington. We had reached our goal around 1:00 p.m. and were headed back down when one rope team lost their footing and disaster struck. Two of the three-person group went into a crevasse.

I was leading the first rope team of climbers, and we made our way as rapidly as possible to the place where our friends had disappeared. Though it was an incredible relief to discover that they were alive, we were still faced with a desperately serious situation. One had landed on a shelf of snow and was relatively easy to get back to the surface. But the other climber was wedged between two walls of ice and we could not get her free.

There was another team on the mountain that had professional rescue training, and they saw the accident occur just before they would have turned a corner and been out of sight. They came to help.

The rescue effort took several hours. We lowered the man who had the most rescue experience to our friend who was stuck and, hanging upside down, he cut the straps to her pack. This freed her and allowed those of us on the surface to pull her up. In the meantime, she was in grave danger of freezing to death—it literally was a miracle that she made it out alive.

When our co-climbers had been flown out by helicopter, the rest of us started down the mountain. I was again leading the team and as we made our descent, we came to another crevasse. It probably was not more than a foot and a half wide, but as I looked down into that opening in the ice, I froze. It was then that the thought, “It could have been you” went racing through my mind.

God started dealing with my heart right there. I knew I was not right with Him, and I could not plead ignorance as an excuse for my condition. I knew all about what it meant to have a right relationship with God. I don't remember the first time that I understood my responsibility to connect with God, because I was too young.

My dad was a preacher before I was born, and was a pastor for most of my childhood. I had four other relatives who were ministers also. Throughout my growing up years, I heard the stories of how God had worked in the lives of our family members. I would listen to those stories and think, What am I doing with that heritage?

The summer before my senior year of high school, I knelt in prayer at a camp meeting and asked God to come into my heart. God saw that I brought Him an honest heart, and He forgave my sins. I knew I was His child, and for some years, my relationship with God was good.

After I finished high school, I faced many decisions: what to do for a profession, who to marry, and where to live. I moved back to Portland, Oregon, where I had spent some of my younger years, worked for a year, went to college for a year, and eventually applied for an electrical apprenticeship. I was turned down the first time but applied again a year later. This time I promised God that if He would get me into the program, I would return my service to Him somehow. The trade was difficult to get into; I was told it helped to “know” someone in the trade but I did not. However, out of about 1200 applicants, I was one of fifty accepted. I knew God had worked for me, but I also knew that the day would come when He would require me to fulfill my promise to Him.

I married my high school sweetheart, Gale, when I was halfway through the four-year apprenticeship. God allowed me to be successful, even though by that time I was on a spiritual plateau and definitely starting to slip. I had begun to let just about anything take precedence over God. That was the beginning of a long downhill slide that eventually wound up with my walking away from Him altogether.

What I didn't realize as I drifted away was how much God wanted to bring me back to Himself. If at any point I would have acknowledged my drifting was wrong and turned back to God, He would have restored me. However, eventually I had gone so far that, in a moment of weakness, it wasn't hard to let Satan tell me to turn my back on God. And I did. I went out and became a sinner again. That was the biggest mistake I ever made.

As soon as I turned away, I realized that I had still had something until I turned my back on God. All of a sudden, there was a hole in my soul. To deal with that void, I got busy with life—I pushed myself because the minute I slowed down, God was there to deal with me again. I had to keep busy to shut out His gentle voice.

Gale and I had three children: two girls and then a boy. In addition to raising a family and pursuing my career, I became involved in mountain climbing. That began to consume more and more of my time. Before long, on a typical weekend, I would race home from work on Friday night, throw my gear into the car, and head off for a weekend of climbing. I thought that was satisfying, and it was—for a while. But that satisfaction didn't last. Within a week or so of conquering a summit, I would be planning my next climb. I had to be doing something!

I set a goal for myself to climb all of the sixteen major mountains in Washington and Oregon . I reached that goal, climbing some of them many times. Then the accident on the mountain occurred, and after that, my love of climbing dimmed.

In that same period of time, God gave me a good job in the electrical field. I set some goals for myself and one of them was to run a million dollars worth of work for my company. I achieved it, but as I reached these goals, they did not fill the void in my heart. I remember thinking, I've achieved my goals, but I am empty, and I don't know what's wrong!

I decided that the answer was to go for bigger goals, and more successes at work. At the same time, I was thinking, Maybe the climbing scene has not satisfied me because I'm not doing hard enough climbs, or climbing internationally. But right about that time, God stepped on the scene again, and He started dealing with me in terms that I understood. Through three separate situations, the Lord brought me to the point I was willing to bend my knees and my will to Him again.

First was the climbing accident. Next, I had a brush with death in the foundry where I worked as a maintenance electrician. I had been called in to work as the graveyard-shift electrician that night. Groggy because of interrupted sleep, I forgot to notify the other operators that I was on a crane near them. The operator of another crane came over and pushed my crane out of his way so he could accomplish his work. As the crane I was on rolled down the tracks, I had to jump to a catwalk on the side of the crane to get under a steel structure that only cleared the crane by about a foot. A moment later and I would have been crushed as the crane went under the steel, or knocked to the ground about 30 feet below. God got my attention! It was many minutes before my pounding heart returned to normal.

Then God allowed an affliction to come upon my oldest daughter. That was the real turning point. I felt completely helpless—and the worst part was, I knew I needed to get right with God before He would answer my prayers for her. God was putting the pressure on me.

At last these situations brought me to a crisis point. I can take you to the very spot where God spoke to my heart. There was no rebuke, no accusations. He simply said, “Howard, why don't you come home?” I rattled off my whole list of successes to Him and said, “I have done this on my own. Why do I need You?” And He said, “Because I love you. I have a work for you.” I couldn't argue with that. Oh, the love of God that would still deal with my soul after I had spurned Him for five years!

One Sunday night, I prayed at home, and God came down and wonderfully restored me. As the waves of glory rolled over my soul, separation from God was replaced with a close relationship, and the best of earthly accomplishments was replaced by things that will have value in eternity. Since that time, I have found that the satisfaction and fulfillment I craved were in God.

How different my life has been since then! I have had the privilege of working for the Lord fulltime for several years now. God healed my daughter. My wife and children are serving the Lord too and we have a happy Christian home.

If there is one message I could give to people today, it would be this: Don't go the way I went. If you are not a Christian, turn to God and yield control of your life to Him—you will never be sorry! If you have been saved but have drifted away from God, He wants to restore that. If you will turn to Him with all of your heart, I guarantee that He will be there waiting.

Today I am rejoicing in everything God has done for me.

Howard Wilson is pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church in Seattle, Washington .