Good morning. In the Antarctic winter of 1934, there was a lonely man struggling to survive. The man I speak of was Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Admiral Byrd had served his country with great distinction in World War I. After the war, Admiral Byrd became world famous as a pioneer aviator, and an arctic explorer. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his flights to the North and South Poles. By that winter of 1934 he had already led expeditions to Antarctica and had established the outpost called Little America from which future expeditions would be based.
In the winter of 1934 Admiral Byrd chose to man a weather station called Bolling Advanced Weather Base. This required that he spend the Antarctic winter, March through August, by himself in a small hut. He wrote of this adventure in his book titled Alone. The temperature while he was at that weather station never rose above -58F and averaged about -76F. His diary marked his efforts to explore the area and to keep track of the weather in the early months of his stay. But then things took a bad turn. The hut he called home became buried in an ice slide. His ability to make contact with the Little America base was greatly impaired, but what was of greater and immediate concern was that the small stove he used for heat and cooking could no longer be properly vented. Byrd learned rather quickly that whenever the stove was turned up to a working temperature, he began to feel sick and woozy. He realized that this was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. The only answer was to turn the stove down as far as he could, but to remain hot enough to keep him from freezing to death. A delicate balance to be sure!
Admiral Byrd wrote in his book that in time it became extremely difficult to motivate himself to crawl out of his sleeping bag in order to do the minimum things required to exist on any given day. The great temptation was to simply accept his fate and let the cold take him.
He wrote that the only reason he survived was that he was able to quote scriptures on the power of faith. The following were among those listed:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Your faith does not depend on the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:5
For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37
Admiral Byrd wrote in his diary of the need to constantly “feed his faith” lest the doubts and fears should overtake him.
For us, it is not a new notion that a key to living a successful life of faith is to take care to “feed” that which is desired and to “starve” that which is not. You can say this about good and evil, about confidence and doubt, and certainly about faith and fear. The one that is fed is the one that will grow stronger, while the one that is purposefully refused nourishment will weaken and fade.
Eventually, those who were stationed at Little America received his messages, and when the weather permitted (this didn’t happen for several days) they came to his rescue. They broke him out of his ice buried hut and found a man who was frostbitten while terribly weak and ill from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Each day we are faced with similar decisions on what to feed. Will we feed fear, or will we find reasons for hope and strength? Will we give in to anger or even hatred, or will we find a way to see that other person as the Lord sees them, forbearing and forgiving them? Will we give in to the same temptations that the enemy frequently throws in our path, or will we call upon the power of the Lord within us and win the victory? Every choice we make is a choice to feed one and to starve the other.
Feed your faith, your hope, your love, and your joy!
Vern