Rock Climbing

Do you like to hike in the mountains? Have you ever gone rock climbing? When I was a teenager, my friend Jeremy and I liked rock climbing. The mountains near where we lived had many exposed granite rocks which were great for climbing.

Often when we went on a hike with the church or the Pathfinders, Jeremy and I would stray away from the main group, attracted by some rock formation we had found. Of course, we climbed all such formations that we found.

Once, on a Pathfinder camping trip, we took a hike along a small river. At the end of the hike was a dam, and on the other side of the dam was a reservoir known as Bluewater Lake. The river below the dam ran through a small canyon with walls 27 meters high—as high as a ten-story building. At the base of the dam, there was a trail to the top. You had to climb a lot of stairs, but you could make it.

Jeremy and I, however, wanted to go a different way. We decided to climb the rock walls of the canyon and go straight up. Normally when you go rock climbing, you have a lot of safety equipment. You have ropes and harnesses, you have anchors, and you are very careful to use your equipment properly. But Jeremy and I didn’t have any equipment. We had no ropes and we had no anchors. We just had ourselves. In fact, we never used ropes when we went climbing, because we were really foolish.

We started climbing up the canyon wall. When the adults saw what we were doing, they got worried. But it was too late to turn around. The others started up the trail to the top, climbing lots of stairs. Meanwhile, Jeremy and I kept going up the canyon wall.

About halfway up, we reached a small ledge. Above the ledge we could find no hand holds. If we had had ropes, we wouldn’t have had any difficulty. But, we had no ropes.

On the right side of the ledge was a gap about one meter wide. Then, there was another ledge. We could see that the other ledge afforded an easy way up. But the only way to get there was to jump. And we were five stories up. If we missed the ledge, we’d fall a long way and land on the rocks below. That wouldn’t be good.

Jeremy jumped across, but I was afraid. What if I jumped and missed? I thought of climbing back down, but that was also scary. If I went down, I wouldn’t be able to see where I was putting my feet. I could easily fall if I tried to climb down. I really wished I’d taken safety precautions and used a rope. But, it was too late for all of that. Scared as I was, the only reasonable choice I had was to jump across that gap.

So, I prayed, gathered up my courage and jumped. When I landed squarely on the other ledge, I was relieved. But I didn’t keep going straight up. Instead, I worked my way over to the trail and took the trail the rest of the way up to the top of the canyon.

I never went rock climbing with Jeremy again.

Have you ever been in a scary situation? God promises to take care of us in Psalm 91:11, 12: “The Lord will command his angels to take good care of you. They will lift you up in their hands. Then you won’t trip over a stone” (NIrV). In the same way that God protected me when I had to jump across that gap, He will also protect you. Just ask.