For those of you who don’t know me very well or who haven’t heard me yapping about my college adventures, you probably don’t know that my new hobby is rock-climbing. Specifically, rock-wall climbing.
After about 2-3 days of college orientation, I was pretty overwhelmed with anxiety. I had met over 100+ people in a 50-70 hour period and only remembered about 10-20 of their names.
I had purchased 3 books that I didn’t need, and I was burning more calories running from place to place than I was consuming the cafeteria’s endless buffet of sausage pizza and french fries.
Remembering that Wartburg had a wellness center, I walked on over and decided that I should go work out some of my stress.
When I got there, I began lifting when all of a sudden, I heard the sound of a cowbell.
Not a sound I was expecting to hear while I was lifting, but I did.
Turns out, the rock-wall was open to climb, and that was something I knew I had to try out.
So I put on my harness, got tied up, climbed for about 2-3 minutes before realizing I was only halfway up the wall. I could feel the pain in my forearms and sweat in my fingertips as I kept going because I knew I was going to ring that bell at the top!
And I did! 5 minutes after starting, I did it!
Little did I know, that was the easiest route of the 8 possible routes, but I didn’t care because I did what I didn’t see myself doing!
-----
After a few months, I’m now an employee at the rock-wall, meaning I get paid to climb as well as belaying others while they climb, and I’ve climbed just about every climbing route on the wall.
Just this past Wednesday, I showed up for work a few minutes early, began eating my dinner before my shift started when all of a sudden, a little girl no bigger than a car tire, walked on over and stood under the wall staring straight up at the top.
After the third bite of my sandwich, I confronted her, helped her with her harness, and away she went on up the wall.
45 minutes later, after her eleventh time climbing the same wall, she said to me FOR THE ELEVENTH TIME, "Can I try this again?"
I wasn't going to tell her no even though I had only eaten 3 bites of a sandwich since lunch, my fingers were rope-burnt, and I had a ton of homework left.
It was then that I realized something: She was NOT going to let this 35 ft wall defeat her!
Her arms had to feel like rubber because mine did, but she was persistent that she get to the top and defeat the wall that stood in front of her.
After she finally got to the top, she rang the bell and descended in triumph!
She had overcame her biggest challenge of the day.
Right before she left, I congratulated her and asked why she kept wanting to climb the same route even after failing to climb it the first eleven times.
Sharia, the small, yet fierce and victorious 8 year-old, responded, "Because you kept catching me whenever I fell. I can't do it very good if you don't catch me, you know!"
A guy she couldn't even see while she climbed because she kept her eyes pointed up towards her end goal, and she did it without looking back.
-----
Imagine if all of us had that same faith like Sharia.
Imagine how much easier it would be to climb the walls in your life if you didn't second-guess yourself because you knew that someone would be there to help you when you fell.
How funny is it that God just so happens to run his own rock-climbing operation in each of our lives, and we don't even know we're climbing because he's always attached to us!
God is belaying us up to the top of our biggest challenges whether or not we're ready to keep climbing. Whenever you're ready to get to climbing your walls, he's going to be ready, too!
Philippians 4:13 (a.k.a. the Christian athlete's favorite Instagram bio Bible verse) says that YOU can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.
I know for a fact that Sharia could've given up after eleven tries and called it a day, which would've been totally acceptable.......but she chose to keep climbing!
Life is hard, and more often than we pretend it isn't, life can really suck! But if you believe that God will have your back, then he's going to have your back!
He's going to help you past any challenge that you've faced or are going to face because no wall is too big for God to help you climb.
He's already created the routes you'll have to climb.
All you have to do is trust that He'll show you HIS path and not your own.
Live, love, and be loved.
Comentários