Standing On The Heights?

I have always been interested in climbing.  Not big mountain climbing but recreational climbs on 50 or 100 foot cliffs.  I never have had a fear of heights although you must have a healthy respect for what gravity will do if you ever come unglued from the surface.  There are two ways of climbing: aided climbing and free climbing.  With aided climbing you have the use of a harness, ropes and various other devices to attach yourself to the rock face.  Someone is on the other end of a rope, “on belay”, meaning that if you lose your footing and fall they can catch your weight with the rope enabling you to reestablish a footing.  Free climbing means you are climbing “free of equipment”.  Other than minimal clothing, it’s you and the rock face.  This climbing does not allow for mistakes; if you fall there is no one there to catch you.  Both kinds have an attraction for different reasons.

A few years ago several family members went hiking up one of the canyon trails on the West side of the Bitterroot Valley.  My son, my mom and her husband and several of my son’s kids were along.  For some reason I no longer remember, my son and I decided to free climb a small 40 or 50 foot rock face along the trail.  I think we were killing a little time as the kids played in the stream running down the center of the canyon.

At any rate we started climbing with my son in the lead.  As I climbed I felt the strain in my arms and legs as I pulled myself up from each rocky knob and crevasse ever higher.  It had been some time since I had been doing any hard physical work.  The muscles in my calves were vibrating under the unexpected pressure caused as my toes pushing up off of narrow toe holds.  By the time I reached only half way I realized that I was not nearly in the shape that I imagined when I looked up from the ground below.

My calf muscles were beginning to cramp terribly, my forearm and biceps muscles were quivering.  I would not be able to make the top of the rock face.  I then realized that I was in no condition to make my way down either.  If you have ever free climbed you know that going down requires being able to hang out far enough to see where to place your feet below to make your decent.  This places even more pressure on your arms to hold your weight as you lean out off of the face.  It is times like this stuck 20 plus feet in the air that you get that hair raise on the back of your neck, feel little sweat break out, and if you are a Christian; start praying.

I realized that I would have to swallow my pride, call up to my son, who was almost to the top by now, and have him come back and help me down.  As I waited for him to descend I had a couple minutes to try to rest my muscles as best as I could and consider how I had gotten myself into such a mess.

At times we ignore our relationship with the Lord, cut back on prayer time and reading the Bible.  We get caught up in day to day activities, work, kids and recreation or just sleeping.  It can be easy to neglect our spiritual life and focus on the physical life that greets us every morning.  The more we neglect our spiritual life the easier it is to put off the renewing our connection with God.

Just like I did not make a full assessment of my physical condition before I began to climb and found myself in trouble, we can fail to make an accurate assessment of our relationship with the Lord.  We can strike out on our own, outside of his will and find ourselves in trouble half way up a rock face so to speak.

2 Samuel 22:31-34 says the following:

31 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.  32 For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?  33 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.  34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.

My son made it back down to where I was clinging to the rock face.  He moved down below me and helped me locate toe holds for my feet and we worked our way to the ground.  Thankfully, everyone else on the far side of the stream was involved in other activities totally unaware of our situation.  But, I had learned a valuable lesson or two.  Before I tried to climb the rock face and “stand on the heights” I needed to get in better shape, physically and spiritually.

Regular Joe