rock climbing

our small group went with dennis’ to bloomington for some physically hardcore fun … i’d done it a bit in high school, so i was pretty familiar with how things worked, but i still failed the belay test. fail.

basically, for each climb, there’s a climber and a belayer, who stays on the ground and holds the other end of the rope. there’s a technique to it, to make sure the climber won’t fall to his/her death if they lose their grip or whatnot. and they can let the climber down slowly after they finish climbing. and the climber can climb with confidence that he/she will make it back to the ground safely, regardless of how high they go…

when i was watching people climb, and even remembering my thoughts when i was climbing, i thought it was really curious that even tho there was someone there to make sure i wouldn’t fall, i’d still climb holding on tight to those colorfully fake rocks as if my life depended on it. i was climbing as if it were only me, trying not to depend on my belayer, but knowing that without her there, i would have given up a long time ago.

i thought it was a good picture of our dependence on God. there are times when we depend too little, thinking we can climb up that wall on our own, without Him belaying us and making sure we don’t fall. and there are other times when we try to depend too much and ask Him to pull us up to the top without us doing any work.

But God is good, and He catches us when we fall, even when we don’t ask Him to. and He doesn’t pull us to the top on His own, even tho He is able, because He wants us to learn how to climb.

~ by xtalahn on July 16, 2008.