A New Hobby and New Perspective

So I've taken up a new hobby. Yeah, that's right, it's pretty amazing. I've climbed a few rock walls in my lifetime - a youth camp here, a visit to Belmont's student center there. But nothing compares to making climbing more than just an occasional time-killer or mini-adventure. And I think, well, I think that I'm on my way...

Aaron, Cliff's roommate and best friend, has been an avid climber for quite some time, transferred the bug on to Cliff and you can probably imagine what happened after that. I couldn't understand, at first, the necessity to invest in good gear or spend hours at the climbing gym. After my first climb outdoors, though, at Leda in Soddy Daisy, TN (just outside of Chattanooga) it was on, as we like to say, "like Donkey Kong." I have a harness in the mail and will be shopping for shoes in just a few days. But it's more than the gear, despite how much I absolutely love to buy and own great outdoor gear. Climbing is this thing, even more so than hiking I think, that is absolutely challenging, both mentally and physically in an addictive sort of way. I spent two and a half hours at Climb Nashville last night, and started my first try at bouldering. They call bouldering routes "problems" and I can see why now. No lie, the image of those red taped routes are stuck in my head and I can't stop thinking about how I'm going to make the last one the next time I go, that way I can logically move on to the white-taped routes.

I only actually harness climbed one route successfully last night, my arms and legs and body were really spent from the time spent bouldering. Aaron spent some time showing me how to use a Grigri to belay Cliff so that when he heads out in May, Cliff and I will be able to go out together and I won't let Cliff fall to his death. Yeah, that'd not be good.

Anyways, climbing is amazing and I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time doing it. Each new outdoor activity I take on makes me feel that much more alive, not just in an adrenaline sort of way, but spiritually too. Even in church on Sunday, we were singing Chris Tomlin's "How Can I Keep From Singing?" and there's this line about "holding onto the rock I cling to" that really makes sense to me now, even after just one afternoon spent on the side of an overhang.

I sometimes finding myself looking at God the way I used to look at cliff faces - large, inanimate, cold, and unwelcoming to human's. On the flip side of that, I am remembering how to look at God the way I've started to look at those very same walls; I see crags and holds, learn to trust the integrity of the stone (especially if it's granite), and notice the way the rock can sometimes hold me when I am running out of strength to hold onto it myself. It's an amazing thing, really - you should check it out for yourself sometime.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2)