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| Saturday, July 28, 2007 |
| Lessons Learned while Rock Climbing |
My birthday is coming up in August. Four years ago, my MIL decided she was taking me rock wall climbing for my birthday. I had never been and had always wanted to try it. A few days before we were to go, I was in a pretty bad car accident and was injured. I had a compound dislocation of my right ankle. Basically, my ankle dislocated, tearing all of the skin around it and popped straight out to the side, exposing bone at the bottom. There would be no rock wall climbing that year.
Throughout the last four years we've talked about the fact that we still needed to go. My foot is not normal still and probably never will be. I'll hopefully have surgery in the future to repair nerve damage and some other things, but for right now it's as good as it gets. Anyway, last Wednesday we finally decided to climb.
Here's some lessons I learned:
1. Humility: It's HARD!! I have been repelling before and loved it, but then I was coming down. Going up is a lot harder! Trying to balance, hold onto little or nothing with your fingertips and pull yourself up is difficult.
God has been working on me with issues of pride in my life and this was another good lesson in humility. I realized I'm not 20 anymore, like everyone else in the rock climbing place. Once, I had climbed up a little ways and had grabbed hold of a what they called a spinner, a loose one. I immediately started falling and yelled it out to my belayer (the rope controller and lifeline). By the time I got to the bottom I realized the people waiting in line were laughing ferociously, trying to control it when I turned to look at them. Humiliation! I know they were laughing at the old, overweight person, trying to do something she couldn't. I wanted to shout, "Hey, at least I'm here trying." I saw the pride in them and it made me mad. Later, laying in my bed that night, thinking how awful I had done and how mad I was at that situation, I realized that I'm that way sometimes too. The things I'm good at and do well, I sometimes snicker in my mind and wonder why others can't do it too or why they even try if it's not what they are cut out for. I realized that what I saw in them and despised, is also what I despise in me. Yet another lesson from God in humility. Hopefully, I will be better at this issue in the future.
2. TRUST: Rock climbing takes two. The one climbing and the one that is controlling their rope, the belayer. It is the responsibility of the belayer to make sure that the climber is correctly roped in and that they are correctly hooked up and grounded. Then the belayer has to keep constant eye contact with the climber, not swaying their attention for a second. The belayer takes up the slack in the rope as the climber climbs. They must be constantly on guard for a slip from the climber. At that point, it is their responsibility to tighten up the rope, preventing a fall. If the belayer takes their eyes off the climber even for a second, it could be disastrous.
I saw several parallels here to the Chrisitian life. In a sense, God is our belayer. He is our lifeline, constantly guiding us. In fact, He is the perfect belayer. He will never take His eyes off of you or let you fall. He helps us along through life, even when we're not sure of where to place our foot next. When we slip, He's there to tighten our rope and keep us on the right path. Climbing without a belayer could mean certain injury or death. Climbing life without God as your anchor and guide is guaranteed death. A climber must fully trust their belayer and the belayer must be trustworthy. God is certainly trustworthy, we must fully place our trust in Him.
I don't know if I will ever climb again. H went with us and was awesome at it. My MIL did good too. I would like to go back and try again, and I will probably certainly take H back and be her belayer. However, the lessons I learned and the parallels I saw, will hopefully stick with me for a while. |
posted by 6blessings @ 6:28 AM  |
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