“Mountains may crumble, but His love for you will never end.”
~ Isaiah 54:10
Lisa wiped sweaty palms on her unblemished
climbing pants. The ringing in her ears
and thumping from her chest screamed panic at her first rock climbing attempt.
She hadn’t been keen on trying it, but her boyfriend Tyler
insisted. “You’ll be surprised at how it’ll
boost your confidence for other things. Besides, you might even like it!” he claimed. Swinging precariously from a rope off a cliff
didn’t sound like her idea of fun, but his persistence paid off.
They both treasured Colorado’s
Rocky Mountains - but for different reasons.
Tyler craved the thrills availed by nature’s peaks: hang gliding,
climbing and heli-skiing. Lisa, on the
other hand, found that photography often provided a similar adrenalin rush.
Apprehensively, she stepped into the climbing harness and adjusted
her helmet. The belay rope, secured to
the rock and the instructor at the top, was secured to the harness. It seemed safe enough, but she was still fearful.
How could she have convinced herself
that this might be fun?
Delicate fingers clamped onto a
narrow ledge overhead just as a rock below her fell away. After climbing about 30 feet, Lisa was ready
to climb back down. But she said a short
prayer instead: “God, I’m scared and I don’t know the way up this mountain. But I know You’re up there, and You have me
“on belay.”
“Don’t get discouraged!” the instructor called down. “It’s actually easier to keep going forward.” And so she did … until eventually Lisa
crawled over the cliff top – exhilarated, exhausted, and amazed. “I knew you could do it!” Tyler shouted from
below.
Lisa stood atop the rocky cliff, arms raised in
victory. When she looked down at the dizzying drop,
nothing met her gaze but flat clouds hiding the treasure of their landscape
below.
"I did it," she whispered to herself, lips
chattering but curving proudly upward.
"I climbed to the top of the world!"
Many years later, Tyler was killed by a distracted driver in
a head-on collision. When the shocking news
came in the middle of the night, Lisa felt as if she’d been kicked in the gut. Hanging up the phone, her mind flashed back
to that summer adventure in Colorado.
“God, I’m terrified, and I don’t know the way up this
mountain. But I know You’re up there,
and You have me “on belay.
To the faithful like Lisa, there are no hopeless situations.
Futility only happens when we find ourselves
at the end of our rope; where there’s no confidence in a positive outcome.
With God, there are no unfair situations over which you can’t
prevail; no dreams too far-fetched or difficulties that can’t be successfully
removed from your path. He promises that
those who seek Him will lack no good thing.
Precious Lord, sometimes it feels like You’ve
left us in the battle; like our pleadings seem to go unanswered. Help us trust You in the midst of our
uncertainties, our questions, and our aloneness. Amen
