Our family decided to do try something fun and adventurous during the winter holidays – rock climbing! The most my kids have ever rock-climbed was at church where there’s a small rock climbing wall in their class. They’ve also done the occasional wall at kid’s play places.
For Alan and I – we have zero experience! I mean, our churches growing up weren’t that cool but how hard could it be? Let’s just say, we learned a lot about ourselves. We didn’t know that fear of heights or fear of getting hurt would creep up and be the obstacles that we needed to overcome.
RAPELLING & THE ROCK
With rock-climbing, you climb up but the only way to come down is by rappelling. It’s where you hold onto the strap attached to your harness and push away from the rock. Your weight starts bringing you down.
My little boy was like spider man and loved the adrenaline rush. My oldest, however, had different expectations of what it would be like. She didn’t expect it to be that hard and struggled with fear. She put on her harness and started climbing until..😳Fear didn’t keep her from trying but it kept her from moving. So here she is hanging from the rocks, afraid to go up further and afraid to come back down. Fear was literally crippling her. We didn’t know that our “fun” adventure would become a time of tears. She was crying, not knowing what to do. Her dad kept saying, “I got you but you need to let go of the rock”.
It was the perfect picture of us and our Heavenly Father. So many times, we let fear of the future (unknown) and fear of the past (painful experiences) hinder us from moving forward. All along, God has his arms wide open saying, “I got you but you need to trust me and let go of the rock”. Here’s the crazy part.. she was already secured by the harness. She knew the fact that she wouldn’t really fall. Does that situation sound familiar in life? You know the truth and all God’s promises in your head but for some reason it’s not finding its way to your heart. Fear has a way of doing that. It has a way of making us believe lies and pushing away the truth. We become crippled, not being able to get ahead in life and reaching for everything God has in store. That’s because fear is not from God. It’s from our spiritual enemy, Satan. The Bible tells us that Satan is the Father of Lies.
DOMINATING FEAR
I’m so proud of my daughter because she was so determined to learn how to rappel. Through tears and all, she kept trying and trying and by the end of the night, she was a pro!! And guess what? She wants to rock-climb for her birthday. She decided the more she does it, the better she’ll get at it. It’s the same way with our relationship with Christ. The more we trust and obey God’s voice, the easier it’ll become. Fear will have no place because perfect love drives out all fear. I’m ready to start loving God perfectly, how about you?
