Living the letters: Colossians...Continued from page 2

Little Bowers remains a marvel ? he is thoroughly enjoying himself. I leave all the provision arrangement in his hands, and at all times he knows exactly how we stand, or how each returning party should fare. . . . Nothing comes amiss to him, and no work

is too hard. It is a difficulty to get him into the tent; he seems quite oblivious of the cold, and he lies coiled in his bag writing and working out sights long after the others are asleep.

Of these three it is a matter for thought and congratulation that each is specially suited for his own work, but would not be capable of doing that of the others as well as it is done. Each is invaluable.

THINK

“I took all this in and thought it through, inside and out.” (Ecclesiastes 9:1)

• In Colossians 1:1, Paul says that he’s on a “special assignment.” Scott was on an expedition to the South Pole. Can you see any benefit to viewing the life of faith in these kinds of terms? Why or why not?

• A little more than two months after he wrote this journal entry, Scott and a few remaining men froze to death in a brutal blizzard. Yet his writing seems to describe vigor, vitality, and oblivion to the cold. How do you account for this?

• Have you ever experienced anything like this ? an extreme sturdiness in the face of insurmountable odds? This doesn’t have to be a polar expedition. It might be as mundane as surviving the holidays with your family.

READ

From The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard3

Never Again

(Apsley Cherry-Garrard was one of Scott’s expedition members. He

formed a search party and eventually found the bodies of Scott and his

companions, along with Scott’s journal entries.)