Above: The last photograph Chris McCandless took of himself, probably a few weeks before his death. The note he is holding says, “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all.”
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In April of 1992, a healthy 24-year-old Chris McCandless journeyed into the Alaskan wilderness to escape civilization and live off the land. Four months later he was dead. His sixty-seven-pound body was discovered by hunters. His cause of death was officially ruled to be starvation, but there were many other contributing factors.
Chris was the son of well-to-do parents with good jobs. He was an academic high achiever, a college graduate with a double major, and had a love of classic literature. However, he never pursued a career in anything. He had $25,000 (not bad for a kid right out of college in 1990) which he donated to charity, determined to live the life of a penniless vagabond. He drifted from place to place, seeking adventures in the outdoors which he loved.
He hitch-hiked his way around the West, did some white-water rafting and kayaking, hiked the mountains, lived in hobo camps, worked occasional jobs for a little cash when he needed it, sometimes broke into vacation cabins to eat and sleep, got arrested a few times; and he loved every bit of it. He called himself ‘Alexander Supertramp,’ and described how much he enjoyed his exciting life of “always having to forage around for my next meal.”
His final journey was into the Alaskan wilderness. He hitch-hiked to Fairbanks, Alaska, and then found a ride to ‘the end of the road;’ and, the beginning of a trail on an old mining road. Jim Gallien, the man who gave Chris a ride to the trail, was concerned about his lack of supplies, lack of food, lack of experience, and lack of knowledge of what he was getting into. Chris did not even bring a map. Jim offered to take him back to town and buy him more supplies. Chris refused, and started walking. Eventually he found an abandoned 1961 bus (turned into a hunting shack), and made that his new home. 
Chris kept a diary, and it appears that things went fine for a little while. He had a gun and shot animals to eat. He had a book on plants, and ate from the abundant vegetation. And he was enjoying his freedom. But then, many things went wrong. He ran out of ammunition for his gun. Autopsy results indicated that he had eaten some toxic wild plant seeds, and he got sick. And a late diary entry described a serious injury: “I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out.” He could have hiked out earlier, but the river was swollen and he believed he was trapped. A map and a little knowledge would have told him of a place to cross just a half-mile south, but he did not have a map or the needed knowledge. Eventually, he starved to death. A 2007 movie Into the Wild told the story of his life and death.
Everyone wonders, ‘What was Chris McCandless thinking?’ Some believe he may have had a death wish. Others think he was just plain stupid. Still others (me included) think that his previous successes at surviving day to day made him over-confident in his ability to handle any challenge. But clearly, he ‘did not know what he did not know,’ and in his arrogance he refused to accept any advice. He had no idea what he would be facing once he left civilization behind. He did not even know what questions to ask.
In Hosea 4:6 God says, “My people are perishing for lack of knowledge.” God is not there talking about lack of wilderness survival skills. God is talking about the lack of knowledge the people have of their God and how to live their lives. In faith and life, as in the wilderness, lack of knowledge will leave you in big trouble.
God created us and gave us this life, and knows all about how it is best lived. But many people no longer believe in God, and many that do, pay God little attention. Where do they get their knowledge about life?
We begin by learning from parents, those to whom God has entrusted the care and teaching of children. One would hope they would pass on good knowledge, but it is not always good, it is always incomplete, and what is good, is often ignored or forgotten. Parents have been around longer and know more about life than kids. Jim Gallien lived in Alaska and knew more about the wilderness than Chris McCandless, but Chris ignored his knowledge.
Probably the most significant source of knowledge about life and faith is social media, television, music, and movies. Oh, oh. This ‘source of life learning’ usually contributes more to ‘lack of knowledge’ than knowledge. My own kids’ generation learned much from many hours of watching Beavis and Butthead, and, Bart and Homer on The Simpsons– and things have gone downhill even from there. When Chris began his trek into the wilderness, he accepted only two sandwiches and a bag of corn chips from Jim. That is not much sustenance for the kind of journey he was taking, but it is more help than what much of today’s culture has to offer. At least the chips and sandwiches did not do him any harm.
Four months after getting out of Jim’s pickup, Chris’s emaciated body was found, but his life had perished in the wilderness that he so loved. He perished because of a lack of knowledge.
And also because of a lack of good and true knowledge, so many people today are perishing– perishing in despair because of no meaning, in hopelessness because they believe they have no future, in loneliness due to broken relationships, in fear and anxiety, in anger toward a God they know nothing about, and in the drugs and alcohol they use to forget it all. They have been wandering through the wilderness of life totally unprepared, not even knowing what to ask or where to turn for help. I have read stories of many people who were at first reluctant to turn to God because our culture had poisoned their minds against all thoughts of God.
I have known many Christians who have lost their way because of a lack of knowledge. We have to know something about what we believe in, or faith will not endure. The faith of many people is nothing more than: “I believe in God and I go to church when I have nothing else going on, so yeah, I’ve got that covered.” But if something goes wrong, they get mad at God, quit the church, and abandon any kind of faith in Jesus. Who told them it was God’s job to give them a problem-free life? What do they know about God’s love, care, discipline, judgement, wrath, sin, punishment, and the place of suffering in the context of our eternal hope? God said, “My people are perishing for lack of knowledge.”
In the wilderness, in life, and in faith, there is much to know. Many people might think they are fine, but they don’t know what they don’t know.
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Hosea 4:6a — God says, “My people are perishing for lack of knowledge.”
Ephesians 4:18 — They have no understanding, and they know nothing because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives.
Mark 6:34 — When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Romans 10:17 — Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
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We pray, O Lord, that you grant unto us true knowledge of You and Your ways. Grant that we may increasingly know what is worth knowing, and always love that which is worthy of our love. We pray that You lighten our darkness, remove from us all error and delusion, and reveal unto us what we need most to know; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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