I’ve been thinking about rock climbing over the past few days. I’m not one of those pro climbers that can do pull-ups with one finger (seriously, those people exist), but it’s an activity I enjoy. Washington, DC is even surprisingly close to some pretty excellent outdoor climbing.
Other than providing hours of fun and dramatically improving my grip strength, climbing has been a source of spiritual growth for me. God has taught me a lot about trusting him and growing as a Christian as I’ve grown and improved as a climber. Here, in no particular order, are the top three things I’ve learned through climbing.
- Let It Go: The thing you’re clinging to is the thing that’s holding you back
Sometimes you find the world’s greatest handhold in the middle of a route. You feel so comfortable and secure holding onto it that you want to hold it forever. There’s just one problem: you can’t reach the next hold as long as you’re still clinging to the one in your hand.
Despite my long arms, there are many times when the next handhold on a route is out of reach as long as I’m still holding tight with my other hand. I had to learn to move my feet up, stand up, and trust that I’ll catch the next hold with my free hand. That’s where the title of this post comes from. Some friends and I were climbing in the gym last year, and someone had gotten stuck on a route where they couldn’t reach the next hold. Ever helpful and encouraging, one of us yelled “feet up and reach!” Now, whenever one of us is stuck somewhere, we can expect to hear “feet up and reach!” from 30 feet below. It’s basically shorthand for “stop clinging there like a baby and MOVE.”
How often do we hold onto things (jobs, relationships, etc.) just because they make us feel comfortable and secure? God promises us security in himself (Psalm 46, among others) and sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter (John 14), but it’s hard to find his security and comfort when we’re looking for it in other things.
- Trust Your Feet: You won’t fall if you’ll just take a step
Climbing shoes are made to be very tight so that your feet fit into small holds, and very grippy so that you don’t slip. Sometimes the best foothold available is not really a foothold at all, just a tiny little imperfection or rough patch in the rock. You have to trust that if you jam your toes onto that patch and step up, it’ll hold your weight. Trying to stand on nothing is kind of an unsettling feeling! Here’s the thing: your weight is what creates enough friction to keep your shoe stuck to the rock, so you have to just go for it. If you try to test and see if it’ll hold, your foot will slip.
When God calls us to do something, we have to just take the step and obey in faith. Psalm 37:23-24 says that he is establishing our steps and holding our hand in case we fall. If I trust that God is always good (Psalm 145:9), always faithful (II Timothy 2:13), and always loves me (Romans 8:35-39), I can trust that the step he’s directing me to will hold my weight. I don’t have to be afraid of falling and getting hurt, even if it looks scary and impossible at the outset.
- Just Try It: You don’t know what you’re capable of until you do it
Sometimes I am completely stuck on a route. “Up” is the general direction I’m trying to progress, but I don’t see how to get there. The next hold is too far away, too awkward of a reach, too small for me to try to support all my body weight on three fingertips. I’m not strong enough or flexible enough to make it happen. I climbed all the way up there, though, so I might as well try. Sometimes I’m surprised by succeeding on the first try (wow, I really CAN hold all my weight on 3 fingertips!). Usually, though, I have to puzzle through some failed attempts before making any progress. Oftentimes the breakthrough comes from changing my perspective – maybe I notice a hold I didn’t see at first, or shift my strategy somehow. I was stuck in the same spot for literally 20 minutes once, and ended up finally getting past it by turning around and stepping up backwards.
Most of the time, the reaction I have after unsticking myself from a hard spot isn’t to be super pumped up about my conquest. It’s usually more along the lines of hey, that was easy once I found the right move! Why did I make that so hard and waste so much energy? Sometimes the next move God is calling us to just looks too hard, or maybe we’re stuck in a pattern of failure where we can’t get any traction. The problem is almost always with our perspective: we’re seeing ourselves and our problems as way too big, and seeing God as way too small. Nothing is too hard for God (Jeremiah 32:27), and we do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13) – amazing things happen when we actually believe that!
