Between the rattlesnake encounter and rock climbing, you could say last Saturday was an interesting day. We went on a guided lesson with The Southern Terrain and let me tell you, seasoned advice from very experienced adventurers will only take you so far and then faith has to take you the rest of the way. Let me explain...
Although the face we were climbing on was considered "beginning," there was nothing simple about it, you still had to haul yourself up there. The good news is that you find a great deal of satisfaction once you've reached the top. The blunt truth is that it looks easier than it is from the ground and it's actually quite intimidating on the way up.
I decided to climb the easier face first, saving the more technical climb for last. First one went okay and I managed to ungracefully scramble my way up and down. But about half way up my ascent on the harder face, I made the mistake of looking down. Instead of thinking of how far I'd come, all I could think of was that it was a long way down and the only thing keeping me from falling was a rope and a guy holding it further down the cliff.
Standing on a tiny ledge, I stretched out my right arm and foot looking for a sturdy crevice as my next move. And then I looked down. Fear overtook me and I'll admit it, I asked to rappel down instead of braving the next step.
You know what I realized from that experience (albeit once I was safe and sound on the ground)? Rock climbing is a lot like having faith in God. As humans, we look up at mountains we face. Sometimes we feel the cliff is just too steep, or we'd rather take a slower, easier, less painful route to get to our destination, but in doing so we don't grow, we don't challenge ourselves to mature, or face our fears to see what we're really made of. Instead of facing an obstacle or hardship with faith that God will guide our steps, we look look up at how far there is to go, or down and realize our position is too vulnerable and we opt out of an opportunity.
Sure, it's safer on the ground, but by staying there we'll never experience the satisfaction of knowing what we can accomplish or grow our faith in God by experiencing His faithfulness in action. And if for no other reason, I've learned that enduring the climb and persevering gives you a humbling perspective you could never have witnessed from the safety of the valley floor.
