Rock Climbing

Rock climbing with my kids

I recently had my first experience on an indoor rock climbing wall. It was the closest I’ll probably ever get to my dreams of sky diving.

The climbing was great. Encouraged by my six year old daughter, I hooked up to the easy rope and she took the intermediate rope beside me. Going up was no problem. About ten feet off the ground I realized the idea was to let go of the wall to get down. Hmmm, that idea looked a lot more fun when I was down on the ground.

Letting go of the wall was extremely difficult. I tugged on the rope with one hand to see if it would hold me or just let me fall. It didn’t tighten. That was not comforting. It took several minutes with encouragement from those on the ground before I was able to let go. I had to trust the design of the pulley which allowed the rope to slip through as I climbed up or down and catch only with all my weight.

Spiritual lesson #1 – God offers us the thrill of climbing mountains of any size. He is our safety rope. We can stay comfortably on the ground and enjoy encouraging others. Or we can hook up and climb with him.

Spiritual lesson #2 – When we are on the mountain, we have to trust the rope to really enjoy the experience.

When fear struck me I began to climb down. Climbing down in fear was not as fun as climbing up with anticipation. I was just a few feet off the ground when I decided to trust the rope. By this time, my daughter is saying “Mom, just push off like this.” And off she goes flying through the air.

When I finally let go and pushed off, the experience was better than I could have imagined. I wanted to do it again. Instead of taking my second turn, I encouraged a friend to experience it.

I know that God climbs with me through everything. Life is made up of cycles and seasons. There is a time to let go of even the good stuff. If I trust him as my security rope, the trip down can be even more exciting than the climb up.

Next time I climb the rock wall, I’m going to let go and enjoy the descent. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll free fall from an airplane. Then I’ll tell you about God as my parachute.

Experience Life!


© 2005 Lisa Biggs Crum