For my first blog post I’d like to suggest an analogy for you to chew on. Analogies are one of the ways my mind loves to wander. I like to use analogies to understand the world better by employing simple things I observe in everyday life to convey more complex ideas and aspects of life. I often find my mind trying to search for significance in the things I see around me, like a blueberry bush being weighed to the ground by thousands of berries, or noticing how saplings are growing out of a larger, dead tree on a hike, or relating a hike through a forest and up the slopes of a mountain to seasons in life. Some of the analogies that pop into my head break down pretty quickly once you start to analyze them but others have so many congruences that they seem like they were meant for each other.
The analogy I am going to share with you actually came from a few of my friends in Oregon so I cannot take credit for all of it. I think it is a brilliant analogy, one with many parallels and congruences with its application to our lives. I decided to use the analogy of rock climbing. Rock climbing as a sport and avenue of adventure has a number of satisfying parallels to the adventure of a life in pursuit of, and in communication with, Jesus.
I was introduced to rock climbing three years ago by a friend in college. We went to a bouldering gym and my first thought was, “how do these people make money off of a gym full of lopsided walls with mis-shapen hand holds?” I quickly came to learn how they made the money. When starting out as a beginner at rock climbing, you quickly realize that there is a vast range of expertise amongst the climbers, and you are probably at the very bottom of that range. This is exciting to me because it means there is always something new to work on and you’re always getting better and can tangibly recognize progress as you “climb” in skill. Each time you achieve a new route there is a rush of adrenaline and this “on top of the world” kind of feeling, especially when it was a particularly hard route. It’s that rush at the completion of a challenge that gets me coming back again and again. What’s also fun is you get to meet all kinds of interesting people because, as a beginner, most of them are significantly better than you in every aspect of rock climbing and you will need their advice to learn how to complete certain routes and how to improve your technique, body placement, etc. Rock climbing has since become one of my favorite hobbies and ways to spend time with friends or by myself. I’m going to lay out a few basic ways in which rock climbing is a great analogy for a life in pursuit of Jesus.
1. You don’t climb alone
You have to rely on others to support you and to get a perspective or idea of how to climb new, challenging sections. In rock climbing everyone is at a different skill level and in life we are all at different levels of maturity in the various areas of our lives. You have to rely on others who are connected to you by a rope attached to your harness when you’re climbing. You also have to rely on others to show you the beta (method or set of moves to achieve a specific route) when you can’t figure a route out on your own. This is very true of us in our spiritual lives as well. We need to reach out to people with more life experience than ourselves to gain perspective from them and to work through and decide on how to approach certain aspects of our lives. I think it’s essential to have that handful of people in your life who keep you accountable to your dreams and goals and who act as your support system when you feel shaky or don’t know what to do next. The same is so true in rock climbing, you’d better have a good climbing partner if you want to make it up the wall.
2. Anchors are necessary
When you fall it’s scary but if you’re securely fastened to the rock you’ll always be confident even when you fall. Jesus is our anchor to the rock in this analogy. You’d better spend your time carefully setting your anchor well in the rock or you may die. Literally. But when you have spent time setting your anchors well, you have nothing to fear. In a multi-pitch route, you climb to a certain elevation on a wall, anchor yourself, bring your buddy up to that point, anchor him in and then climb up again and again until, with a rope that doesn’t span the length of the wall, you can still climb up the entire wall in segments. In a relationship with Jesus you don’t just set your anchor once. A relationship with Jesus is a continual process of anchoring yourself in him and, over time, along your climb, discovering new aspects of Him as you dive deeper into who He is for you. Countless passages from the Bible come to mind as I think of Jesus as the rock, I’d say Jesus as a rock is a pretty “solid” analogy.
3. Failures teach us
No matter what you’re learning in life, you must allow for failures and setbacks. In rock climbing, you fail all the time, it’s about 90% of the game if you’re working on achieving routes in and above your current climbing range. I often try a single route a dozen or so times before figuring out how to get through the hard parts and successfully complete it all together. Rather than being afraid or having a mindset of disappointment or sadness when we fall off the wall (make a mistake or face a new challenge) in life, strive for joy in those circumstances for they will teach you and help you to grow and to achieve things that you previously could not. James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Being tested again and again helps you persevere. Each time you try a route again, your calluses will get a bit stronger, your muscles will get stronger, and you’ll have the ability to persevere beyond the point at which you previously could.
4. Sometimes you have to jump
Dynos are climbing moves where you have to leap off of what you’re holding on to in order to reach the next hand hold on the route. It takes leaps of faith and pushing yourself further than you have gone before to continue to develop and become better. This is true of life in those circumstances where the only option forward is into the unknown; it takes a lot of faith to move there because there’s no guarantee where you’ll end up or if you’ll even make it. In a way I feel like I’m attempting a dyno by stepping out in faith in my move to SE Asia. I’m jumping into something totally unknown and new to me which gives me a lot of excitement and a bit of trepidation. A successful dyno is absolutely exhilarating when you get it but it often takes quite a few tries and is an exhausting process since you’re using your entire body to jump higher than you ever have before to reach something higher than you ever have reached before. I’m ready and excited to jump into the unknown in SE Asia.
5. It feels so good to make it to the top
One of the best parts of climbing is getting to the top. By the time you make it to the top of a long, intense climb you’re normally breathing heavily, dripping in sweat and your forearms feel like they're going to explode. For me, coming to the end of the fundraising season has felt like coming to the end of a long and challenging climb. It was an uncomfortable process that required me to learn a lot of new things and to jump into something that I have never done before. Fundraising may be one area where this analogy breaks down; people climb for fun all the time but NOBODY in their right mind decides to go out and fundraise for fun.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the analogy :)