Ropes – Dare Greatly

May 23, 2024May 22, 2024

Some People Have Skeletons in Their Closet; Mine’s Packed With Gear

Adventure-wise, I’ve done a lot of weird stuff in my life. I have logbooks, journals, and other things that helped chronicle adventures now long gone. I’ve invested thousands of dollars into equipment most people don’t normally get a chance to use. Here’s a partial list of gear I’ve either owned in the past or still own today:

Cross-country skis, poles, and boots

Skydiving container, parachute, reserve parachute, jumpsuit, wrist altimeter, goggles

Semi-dry suit, wetsuit, buoyancy control device, dive computer, regulators, extra weights, booties, fins, gloves, mask, snorkel, various accessories

Multiple climbing harnesses, four different climbing ropes, 15+ carabiners, rigging plate, pulleys, 100+ feet of webbing, figure 8s, ATCs, ascenders, block & tackle, assorted cordage

Paintball gun, paintball mask, CO2 cylinders, thousands of paintball rounds

Cold-weather gear, rain gear, boots

GPS receiver, two-way radios, headlamps, lanterns, flashlights, spotlight, flares, glow sticks, binoculars, glacier glasses, gear bags, backpacks, various knives, fire-starting metal match, 550 cord, tarps

(I don’t think I’ve ever put together a list like this, and looking at it now, I have to express how fortunate I am to not be maimed, seriously injured, or dead as a result of eccentric hobbies. I have no idea how many waivers I’ve signed in my life. Lord, thank you and please pass along my thanks to my guardian angel(s) for me! But that’s not the point I set out to make.)

It’s fun to still have a lot of these relics from long ago. Many of these items are intended for very specific uses, while others can be used in a variety of situations. When I look at some of this gear now, it’s beat up or well worn due to heavy use. Other pieces are almost brand new, even years later, because they either haven’t been used or I only used them lightly. Some of my most well-worn gear includes my cross-country skis and the climbing harnesses and ropes (considering the condition of the climbing gear, those guardian angels deserve another shout-out!). Other stuff that was pretty much a waste of money includes the semi-dry suit (I used it one weekend and still have it, almost 20 years later) and the wetsuit (I’ve had it the same amount of time, but never even got it wet).

At one time or another I owned all of that gear, so it was up to me how often and in what fashion I used it. Users know every piece of gear must one day be pulled from service because it doesn’t last forever. I sometimes had to make the conscious decision to say “you’re starting to wear out, I’m going to sideline you on this smaller adventure so I can save your remaining utility for something bigger,” or “no, I’m not going to bring you along with me this time because based on what I intend to do, I won’t need you this time.”

If, at any point, any of that gear had said to me “I don’t think I’m up for this,” or started repeatedly protesting the manner in which I intended to use it, I likely would have altered my plans for using it. I probably would have started viewing it as unreliable or not worth the hassle. If you look back at the list of gear I wrote down, most of it is used for activities where you can’t accept the use of questionable equipment. If I have unreliable gear but still have my mind set on taking part in the activity, what am I to do? I can either replace it with a piece of more reliable gear, or figure out another way to do what I’m trying to do using the rest of the stuff I have on hand.

Some of the more worn pieces of equipment I have are the ones that have been most reliable, and I have specific memories of how they’ve come through for me when I asked a lot from them. When you consider that we, as Christians, are tools wielded by the Lord to be used for His purposes (purposes we don’t understand or get a say in), it should be our goal to be up for the challenge whenever the Master opens the doors to his gear racks and looks through what He’s got to work with. If that’s the attitude we maintain, by the end of our lives, we’re going to have a very well-worn quality due to heavy use. That’s a good thing.

Make it your goal to, by the end of your life, lose the shine that accompanies lack of use. We shouldn’t be hung up in the closet, still bright and colorful; we should have frayed seams, some chips and dings, and be a little faded. For those of you who have lived your life serving the Lord, or who have temporarily parted ways with loved ones after their years of faithful service to Him, take comfort in the fact that He has fond and specific memories of the ways you and yours have come through for Him.

One day that shine and color will be renewed, even brighter than the original.

May 2, 2024May 1, 2024

You Won’t Know how Strong you are Until Being Strong is Your Only Option

I’d bet few of the people reading this have given much thought to the types of rope used in rock climbing. Climbing ropes are meant to catch somebody who’s lost their grip and taken a fall. As you might imagine, if you’re going to be betting your life on the integrity of your equipment, you don’t want to use just any old rope.

When used properly, the gear used in climbing can withstand harder shocks than your body can. The human body itself is the weak link in the system. To help the climber endure hard falls, the rope itself is designed to have some stretch to it.

As you can imagine, it’s very important that the rope’s owner/user keep track of the number and intensity of falls the rope sustains. Some falls are very easy on the rope; sometimes a climber just kind of slowly loses their balance or their grip and rolls away from the wall without actually falling. In this case the rope holds the weight of the climber, but doesn’t absorb a shock. On the other end of the spectrum, if a climber freefalls 8-10 feet before the rope starts going taut, not only is the climber going to be wincing in pain, but the rope will have used up a great deal of the stretch it’s capable of. That portion of the rope is now both less stretchy during a future fall, and it has less tensile strength and is more likely to break since the stretch is gone. After enough falls, that rope can no longer be considered safe, has to be pulled out of active use, and is retired.

In the last post we talked about succession and training your replacement. This time I’d like to focus on people that may feel like they’ve been forced into something different.

Although many times God will move you from one challenge to a larger one, there are other times He seemingly pulls you out of something and just kinda…leaves you hanging for awhile. Whether it’s ministry or some other profession, or something in your personal life, sudden changes can throw you for a loop. A job loss, a sudden injury, or maybe retirement that came sooner than expected are all examples of a situation leaving you scratching your head and saying “well, what now, God?”

In college I had a professor who taught us about how to safely set up ropes for climbing. He taught us all about knots, setting anchors, and proper care for ropes and gear; these are all technical skills needed for safely scaling or descending walls. As a part of the course he gave all us students a piece of climbing rope about a foot and a half long. He expected us to bring the ropes to class and we used these ropes to practice different knots throughout the course. He didn’t just take a new rope and chop it in pieces; it was a retired rope repurposed to be useful in a different way. Cutting up an active rope to serve this purpose would have worked, but it would have cost the overall enterprise.

If you’ve been forced into a position you wouldn’t have chosen, it’s certainly something easy to grumble about. Maybe you simply can’t perform the same way you previously could, and others that have been waiting for a shot at the role you held are getting a turn at it now. Don’t think that means you have less value. It means your value is going to be used differently. If lots of people can do the job, maybe it’s better to move into something fewer people can do, like a role benefitting from hard-won experience. Just because you can no longer do something you formerly could doesn’t mean you’re without purpose; it means your purpose has changed.

That same professor told a story about when he was younger and managed a nearby ropes course. Since the course was fairly secluded, it was inconvenient to carry ropes back and forth each time the course was going to be used, so the staff had a shed or a box near the course where they secured the ropes after being used. He arrived at the course one day to find the shed had been broken into and one of the ropes stolen. Strangely, a few days later the rope showed up again at the shed.

Not quite sure what to make of this, he knew better than to trust the rope. It had been outside of the ropes course staff’s control, and could not account for the activities that had been done with it. He later heard through the grapevine some students had “borrowed” the rope to pull a car out of a snow bank or something. If that’s true, it was probably a few guys that simply didn’t know their use of the rope would cause it to be retired. I don’t know what my professor ended up using the rope for, but there are plenty of other possibilities. Aside from cutting it up to be used for instruction, rope can also be used for hauling gear up and down a wall, lashing gear to packs, tying down equipment to keep it safe during high winds (or in the back of a vehicle), acting as a drying line for wet gear, improvising shelters out of tarps, etc. After its retirement, the same rope can be used for all of these purposes before they stop being useful.

If you find yourself in a situation where a few bozos made a snow bank-like blunder that ended up costing you, I’m sorry things went down that way. It’s understandable to be upset for a bit, but I have to ask…how long will you dwell on it? If you’ve still got plenty to offer and you’ve got the desire, what other ways can you use your knowledge and experience to benefit others?

It’s never too late to be who you might have been. –Mary Ann Evans

August 10, 2023August 9, 2023

Anchor to Something You Know To Be True

I’d like to stretch a metaphor here a little bit and compare the Christian life to rock climbing.

Most of the time when people go rock climbing, they climb a wall that’s been used plenty of times before. These types of places are usually well-trafficked and the climbers set up the rope at the top of the wall. Then both ends are tossed down, and one end gets tied to the climber’s harness and the other end goes to the person manning the safety line (the belayer). This setup is called “top-roping” because the rope is secured at the top of the climb. The belayer keeps the climber safe by locking down on the rope if the climber loses their grip, arresting the fall.

The trickier version is called “lead climbing.” Climbers start at the bottom of a wall and no rope is hanging down from above. As they climb they hook their rope into anchors in the rock they set along the way. This is the style used when a wall is immense and the rope isn’t long enough to cover the whole climb. It requires more skill and more attention to detail, because when top-roping all you really need to focus on is the climb, but in lead climbing you need to be paying attention to how far away you are from your last anchor point. When lead climbing, if you’re climbing straight up and you fall, you’re going to fall twice the length of the distance between the last anchor and the point where the rope connects to your harness. It’s not bad when there’s only three feet of rope, but you feel it a lot more if you’re 12 feet away from your last anchor.

Evil forces are arrayed against the Christian. Compared to a generation ago, there are fewer strongholds of Christian thought. Places that were formerly safe for the Christian are now battlegrounds. Evil is more prevalent and more accepted among the public, and it seems like the percentage of Christians in the population is dropping. Today I’d like to tie us into an anchor on our Christian journey, at least here in America, knowing that this trend will likely continue, but reminding you to take heart and be bold in Christ, because we know He wins in the end.

Normally I don’t like to use language of paranoia, but I believe there are people out there that spend time plotting about how to weaken the influence of Judeo-Christian values in America. I don’t know who they are, and I don’t know how many of them are out there, but I believe they’re doing it and I believe it’s working. Today prayer cannot be led by faculty or staff in public schools, for example, and nativity scenes can’t be displayed on public property.

Between what I see with my own eyes and what I read about in the Bible, I believe it won’t be long before the law turns against Christians. The first anchor I’d like to link us into is the fact that Americans’ freedom of religion (and speech) are guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Now the way I interpret this is that you should be someone that’s a committed follower of a religion in order to claim the protections of the First Amendment. By that I mean that you shouldn’t be some bigot that inflames conversations about homosexuality, for example, and then runs and hides behind the First Amendment. If you want the religious freedom guaranteed by this bedrock American idea, your life should be consistent with someone who’s trying to live out the principles of that religion. This privilege is not restricted only to Christianity, but to any American who seriously practices their religion.

What are the limits of this protection? In modern-day America, the rise of “woke-ness” means that serious pressure can mount against someone who dares to disagree with the prevailing narrative, and with this pressure often comes some kind of monetary loss (loss of sponsorships or endorsements, loss of a job, lawsuits, etc.). Even though the religious person is likely to be found not guilty if they are faithfully following the pillars of their religion, they will often still have to endure the headache, drama, and expense of legal battles, often at the hands of someone that is better funded and connected.

Additionally, there’s a fluid line when it comes to where the limit of protection lies. If someone makes up their own religion (which is perfectly acceptable in America) and practices it devoutly, that’s fine as long as it doesn’t affect other people. If, however, this person’s religion mandates the collection of doorknobs from other peoples’ houses, and the devout person steals doorknobs from neighbors, well that infringes on the life of someone else, now doesn’t it? That should probably not go unchecked.

The flip side of the coin can be applied to Christianity. The example from earlier will help here. Our religion’s holy book says that homosexuality is one type of sexual immorality, and is sinful behavior. Even though the Bible also says all sinners, regardless of past offenses, need to be told about (and can freely receive) God’s forgiveness, there are many people out there who mistakenly believe they have a right to go through life without being offended. If you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community, I can absolutely see how some of the things in the Bible would offend you (after all, the Bible is offensive to all people who embrace sin). I’m unsure of where that legal line between the First Amendment and the pursuit of happiness is, but I can definitely see how we’re setting up a clash between freedom of religion and infringement on personal happiness that will occur somewhere down the road. My guess is that over time the line will move to favor religious practitioners less and less, until religious freedom eventually starts outright losing and subsequently takes a back seat to people who feel wronged.

If you’re blessed to have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, He may have called you to endure hardship on His behalf. Take heart, though. The sufferings of this life, while painful in the here and now, will pale in comparison to the eternal blessings still to come.

God, this world is full of pain, suffering, and injustice. Please help us know when we should turn the other cheek and when we should stand up and fight to preserve the religious freedom we’ve enjoyed for nearly 250 years. We know the world will grow more and more hostile to Christians, so please help us embrace a mindset of being willing to follow You no matter what comes. Amen.

December 16, 2021December 15, 2021

“Kayaking” + “Rappelling” = “Kayelling?”

(I apologize in advance to my email subscribers; there are a lot of pictures in this post. If it takes up too much room in your inbox, you can also check it out at https://daregreatlynow.com/2021/12/16/kayaking-rappelling-kayelling/)

Today is the 20^th anniversary of a very unique event that happened in my life. For those of you that are longtime readers of DareGreatlyNow, you know that I’ve had some strange experiences. When I call one of them “very unique,” you know it’s got the potential to be a doozy.

During my senior year of college, I was the Vice President of the whitewater kayaking and rafting club, which we called “Paddle Sports.” The club itself was having a great year, and the President (a buddy of mine, Bryan) and I agreed that we wanted to do something to further drive up the club’s membership for the following year.

Every Spring our college had a talent show, and Bryan and I determined to make a video that showed some of the fun things that could be done in the club. We used some footage of fun stuff we did in the pool and some trips in local rivers, and we wanted to combine it with shots of Bryan and I (and maybe a few others) doing weird stunts using some of the club’s gear. As an example, one of the things we wanted to do was to get footage of the two of us bombing down the college’s small ski slope in one of the club’s smaller whitewater rafts.

Well I forget why, but we never got around to that one. We did, however, come up with another idea. Both Bryan and I had some background in rappelling, and between the two of us we had a fair amount of equipment. We came up with the grand idea of recording me rappelling down a cliff in a kayak.

This was a pretty intriguing idea to us, and we actually put quite a bit of thought into it. In November we scouted a location with a very tall cliff and set up the rope, but then when heading down in a normal rappel just to check things out, I discovered that the cliff was too tall, and the rope didn’t reach all the way to the bottom. That’s a dealbreaker. It was a tough break, too, because there’s not a whole lot of afternoon daylight at that time of year and Bryan and I were very busy as the semester went on.

November scouting trip; kayak in the background. Need a ladder or a longer rope.

Fortunately we were able to get our schedules to line up again at the end of the semester, on December 16^th (it’s funny how far some students will go to avoid studying for finals). We found another spot on the same wall that was a little shorter, but if we didn’t pull it off this time, it probably wasn’t going to happen. There was likely to be too much snow on the ground to make it work in January.

It’s funny how much “ridiculousness” you’ll put up with for the sake of doing something challenging. We had to hike a kayak, two ropes, harnesses, and gear up a huge hill and through the woods to get to the top of the cliff. We needed to use a very steep wall in order to reduce the chance of getting the boat hung up on something on the way down. Thankfully most of this wall was very steep, with the exception of a sloped portion at the top.

Second attempt. Bryan’s turn carrying the boat.

We got topside and found a spot where we could set up solid anchors. After confirming that the ropes reached all the way to the bottom, we each did a test descent to get a feel for things, then decided to go for it.

Bryan and I both knew a good bit about knots and anchors at the time, but rigging a kayak for descent was something new for us both. Circumstances necessitated that we set up two systems, one for me and one for the boat. I couldn’t just ride down in a kayak without being harnessed in; I might fall out, for one, and kayaks aren’t designed to be suspended from the bow and stern while holding someone in the middle. Also, kayaks are heavy; if I were harnessed in and the boat wasn’t, I’d have to have Superman’s lower abdominal strength to hold the kayak level during the descent. Besides, this way if something absolutely nuts happened, I could get out of the boat and still maintain independent control of both my body and the kayak. (I just wouldn’t have any shoes on during that event because I couldn’t fit in the kayak while wearing them.)

Well, I slid over the edge of the cliff in the kayak, but I ran into trouble almost right away. As I slid sideways down the cliff, the bow got caught in a shrub growing on the side of the cliff. It wouldn’t have been a problem, except for a funky dip in the terrain where the tip of the stern got wedged. Due to this freak terrain feature, I was stuck in a boat, I dunno, probably at least 60 feet up, without even being able to reach the wall with my arm.

It seemed like no amount of shaking or rolling would break the boat loose. I was stuck for almost 25 minutes doing one long sit-up while trying to figure out what to do. The double-rope system ended up coming in handy; Bryan held the trailing end of my line taut from below while I got out of the boat and stood against the cliff (with no shoes) while shaking the kayak loose. He literally held my life in his hands as I let go of control of my rope to focus on breaking the boat free. (Thanks Bryan…much love!)

After that things went much smoother, though it still took almost 10 minutes to descend the rest of the way. It’s slow going in a kayak that was meant to conquer whitewater rather than cliff walls. All told, it took about 35 minutes to get from top to bottom when it could have been done in less than 60 seconds without a kayak.

Well anyway, we showed the video to the student body during the Spring semester. A few new faces started showing up at our pool sessions, but I think most of the rest of the students were permanently put off by the demented maniac in a boat.

Fast forward 20 years, and I’m still waiting for that Mountain Dew or Red Bull sponsorship to materialize. Know what though? That experience is part of the recipe that makes me who I am today. Who rappels in a kayak? Unless you know some hardcore paddlers, you’ve probably never met anyone that’s done it. For me though, it’s helped shape the way I think. While many people scoff at crazy ideas, I’m one of those that say “well hang on, just because it’s crazy doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

Unusual? Yes. Unconventional? Absolutely. Here’s the beauty of it, though. When God made you, He broke the mold. You can search the world over, but there is simply nobody like you. The places you’ve been, the people you’ve known, the experiences you’ve had…for better or for worse…all combine to make you who you are. Quit trying to fit into the image of what you believe other people think you should be, and just…be you. God saw you coming millennia ago, and He knows exactly where you’re going.

You may not have combined multiple adventure sports, but maybe you’ve done things that make you feel like it’s hard to fit in or like you don’t have a group of people you can relate to. Just know this: if you’re yourself…no matter how weird or zany that may be…God won’t have to “figure out” what to do with you or how to use you to grow His kingdom. There’s been a role waiting for you all along.

So if you’re a Christian, go ahead. Be you. It’s who you were meant to be all along, and God’s got plans for how He’s going to use you.

September 16, 2021September 15, 2021

Letting Go

Today’s post comes to us courtesy of a guest author, my wife! Enjoy!

On a vacation with my family I tried rock climbing for the first time. They had it set up with an automatic belay system… meaning there wasn’t an actual person spotting you if you fell, there was just the system.

I am not a fan of heights, but I also love adventures, so I geared up and was ready to give it a go. All harnessed in, I started to climb. They had someone there ready to point me to foot and hand holds if need be. They also told me to only climb part of the way up the first time and practice letting the belay system catch me so I could get used to it.

As I reached my halfway point, it was time to let go. This is where it got dicey for me. You see, I wanted to hang on to the wall, and feel the rope catch my weight BEFORE I let go. I wanted security, but no matter how much I tried to hold on to the wall and “sit” in my harness there was no feeling of security, only slack in the belay system. I was going to have to completely let go in order for it to engage and catch me. Some of you already see the tie-in here, ironic huh? I needed to let go in order to be caught. I had to trust the system would do what it was built to do. I couldn’t do it any other way. No matter how much I wanted to do it while still holding on, I couldn’t. So, gritting my teeth I pushed off and let go (and fell splat, ha, just kidding), the rope caught as it should have and lowered me to the ground. I was able to keep going, climbing higher the next time. I even learned to kinda like it, and tried again the next day with Tim!

Isn’t this so us in our growing in our faith and trust in our Savior? God is continually, patiently working to build our faith. He knows each of us so well. We have little falls and nudges where we get to “try out” letting go before the really big ones come. During these times God shows He is faithful again and again. Our faith grows and so do the differing callings He places on our lives. There are bigger steps and leaps of faith, pushing us out of our comfort zone many times, and relying on our God’s strength in the midst of our weakness. God is always there to catch us and will never leave us or forsake us. He promises this! (Hebrews 13:5) He is also completely honest with and tells us that we will have trouble and face trials (John 16:33), that we will be tested and tried and stretched. He is refining us, and I don’t know about you, but I think we tend to get lazy when all is well; it’s the trials, or even the scary callings or nudges from God that pulls us back to His arms. We always need Him…we’re just more aware of it in our flesh during the times of desperation, or in the face of our inadequacies.

So where are you? Are you on a mountain ready to conquer the world? Flying free? Don’t forget to lean into God and thank Him for the gifts He has given you. Remember to do all for the glory of God and point to Him and praise Him. Your gifts and talents come from your Maker. Don’t stop looking to Him. Build those disciplines and know your Bible so when life hits you hard you can keep your feet planted on your firm foundation, which is always Christ alone.

Or, maybe you are in a different phase: clinging to the wall, afraid to let go and trust, afraid to step out into the new and unknown? Maybe you’ve already let go…you’ve taken the leap and feel like you’re free falling and not getting caught at all? You are feeling battered and bruised, let down and confused at what has happened? Some things that helped me during these times is looking back and remembering, just as God told the Israelites, to set up stones so they could remember and tell their children of His miracles and faithfulness (Joshua 4:4-7). We also should “set up stones.” We do this by recounting His awesome works, looking back at our life and taking account of His blessings and His gifts, writing down His past faithfulness to remind us in the present, looking for scriptures that encourage our heart and remind us of who our God is and all He did for us! Take your eyes off your circumstances and put them back on your great God. I heard someone recently say “He didn’t save us to then leave and abandon us to our trials all alone,” so even when it seems you are alone or don’t understand why you are going through what you are, cling to the fact that Your God died for you to save you, and He sent us His spirit to live in you, so once you are His you are never alone. Rest in the fact that our God doesn’t change, in an ever-changing culture of what is right and wrong our God is faithful and true, He beckons us to leap and trust and promises an eternity in Heaven with Him.

So yes, we will get bruised and battered in this life. We aren’t in Heaven yet, but as we climb may we keep our eyes fixed on our Savior and remember He is really the only trustworthy one that will never let us down. This fallen world will hurt and disappoint, give false promises, and lead us astray from what truly matters, but our God is always there. His death at the cross and His resurrection secured our place in Heaven if we only believe in Him as Savior. So come what may on this earth, when we are His, we are attached to the most amazing secure belay system imaginable, and our God will always catch us. He already has. Remember this life on earth is temporary, don’t get too attached or swept up in things that don’t really matter, the stuff we won’t take with us. Only the people around us matter. We have an eternity ahead of us! So be brave and live for a God that came down to save you. Love others well. Shine for Him and remember He is worth letting go for. Whatever it is God is telling you to do I dare you…go do it! It will be the best choice and ride of your life, because His plans are way better than ours. Always!

God bless you and thank you for taking the time to read.

September 26, 2019December 27, 2023

God Wants You Dead

When I was in college I took classes in Outdoor Leadership, which included developing skills in both technical areas and in leading individuals and teams toward outcomes. One day our class was learning about how to properly set rope anchors for rock climbing. Obviously, it’s very important that your equipment catches you if you fall off a rock face, so our instructor was teaching us how to secure the safety rope to a number of anchors we had established at the top of the cliff.

The instructor, Kevin, demonstrated a variety of ways to attach safety equipment to boulders and trees at the top. He made a point to emphasize that we’d need to establish three solid anchors before being able to proceed. “That way, if one of them fails, you’ve still got two. Even if two of them fail, you’ll still have one more.”

Of course, someone asked the question. “What if this one goes, that one fails, and the other one goes, too?”

Kevin looked at him, confused. “You mean if all three of them fail?”

“Yeah.”

“Then God wants you dead.”

When you have a God-given task laid out in front of you, it’s certainly a good thing to spend time planning and preparing, but there comes a point where you’re prepared enough and it’s time to get moving. Kevin didn’t want us to establish four anchors, or five. Three was enough. The chances of all three anchors failing was so low that setting more of them would have been a waste of time. If we spent time focusing on more than three, that time took away from our actual reason for showing up at the cliff that day.

It’s possible to take so many safety precautions that it becomes too cumbersome to do anything. There comes a point at which you are suitably prepared, reasonable precautions have been taken, and you’re ready to leave the comfortable behind. The only thing that remains is for you to take action.

By all means plan effectively. Expect problems and make backup plans if necessary, but don’t let perpetual planning stop you from getting started. If all the necessary pieces are in place, it might be that you are the only thing holding you back. What are you waiting for?

May 13, 2019May 12, 2019

Why Not Give it a Shot?

If you look close, you can see the rope that I’m hooked into, going across the creek

I went to college in western New York, where there are tons of creeks, rivers, and waterfalls. We had a series of waterfalls on a creek not far from our school, and it was a great place to go just for the sake of appreciating the outdoors. It was fun to go swimming there at the start of the school year in August or September, but it was such a nice place that we came up with other stuff to do there that didn’t involve swimming.

I had some rock-climbing ropes and gear, and we decided to try to make a zipline across the creek. It would be so cool to stand at the top of one of the falls and jump off, then go sliding along the rope across the creek in front of the waterfall.

As it turns out, I only had enough gear to tease us into thinking it was possible. I was able to make anchors on both sides of the creek, but we couldn’t get the rope tight enough. If I had jumped off the ledge, I would’ve started zipping across the creek, only to have my weight make the rope sag, and I would’ve slid right into the water.

It wasn’t a bad idea to try out, but it wasn’t feasible with the equipment I had on hand. If the rope was longer, I could’ve anchored it higher on the uphill side and increased the descent slope. Alternatively, if I had some ascenders, we could’ve pulled the rope tighter and had less of a problem with sag. Either way, I likely would’ve ended up in the water anyway.

I don’t share this story with you because the outing was a resounding success. In fact, at the end of the day, I didn’t have a whole lot to show for it, other than these pictures. This near-adventure, however, added to an expanding pool of experience from which I could draw during future adventures. As the saying goes, “good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.”

Some of you might be hesitant to give something a try, even if it’s something you’d ultimately like to do. Don’t let your fear of failure hold you back. Even if you’re not completely successful, it could add to your knowledge base for the next trial.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” –Thomas Edison, on making the first electric light bulb

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November 19, 2018November 20, 2018

Can You Ever “Safely” Jump Off A Cliff?

When I was a kid I loved climbing stuff. That held true as I got older, but I also found out that if you have the right equipment, it could be a lot more fun coming down.

This is how I got interested in rappelling. I don’t remember how I got started with it, probably on a youth group trip to a climbing gym or something. I started thinking it over, and as I got into my teens, I began purchasing bits of gear here and there. That stuff’s not cheap. I was afraid my parents were going to give me a hard time for wasting my money on some bone-headed hobby, so I kept it hidden for awhile.

It’s only by God’s grace that I didn’t break my neck or otherwise seriously hurt myself. I didn’t know what I was doing. At first I was so eager to try the stuff out that I’d climb a tree in my backyard while Mom and Dad were both at work. I’d tie the rope directly around the tree (which is terrible for your rope’s longevity), and then rappel down, climbing up again and again until I got too tired to keep doing it.

Mom and Dad eventually found out. If I wanted to hit bigger heights, I had to let them in on it. From trees I moved on to an old nearby antenna tower that wasn’t used anymore. I’d go through life eyeballing places that were easy to climb up and had a big, clear drop. I eventually rappelled down things like an elevator shaft in a building under construction, out of the ceiling of a gymnasium, my dorm room window at college, a few times over the stage of an auditorium during a performance, and a few nice, big cliffs. One time I even rappelled down a cliff IN a kayak. (That’s a whole separate post! Stay tuned…)

It was awesome. Sometimes it felt like something out of a SWAT Team movie, other times it felt like some kind of military special forces thing, but mostly it was just…fun! I loved going off big cliffs, giving a big kick off the wall, and hearing the rope making that “zzzzzzz” noise as it rushed through the hardware, lowering me safely to the ground as fast as I allowed it to. Other times it was a challenge to have precise control over the descent speed. (I almost smashed through a window once in college, but I was able to control the descent enough to avoid doing that. I’m not sure how I would’ve explained THAT one!)

It’s been forever since I did any rappelling. I still have all the gear in the basement, though. I made ziplines, pulley systems, all kinds of crazy stuff. Now my kids are starting to get interested in it. Anyway, I’ve got two ways to tie this story in to your journey of living a more impactful life for Christ.

The first has to do with fear. The absolute scariest part of a rappel is right at the beginning, the part where you make the transition from standing on your own two feet to placing your full weight and trust in the strength of the rope and harness. Especially if you’re new to rappelling, it’s very scary to stand with your heels hanging off the edge of a cliff and then lean backward. The more you do it though, the easier it becomes. You start out from small heights, you learn to trust the equipment, and you pay less attention to the audacity of what you’re doing. You become more at ease with what’s happening, and you’re able to move on to something bigger, because your capability and capacity to handle bigger situations grows.

The second goes back to when I first started rappelling. I wanted to keep this hobby a secret; I had to be careful who I let in on it. I wanted to do it so badly though, that I was willing to do it in secret and worry about the consequences later. If you’re looking to be used greatly for Christ’s kingdom, and you’ve been moving toward letting Him use you for that purpose, there will come a point at which you simply stop worrying, and decide that you’ll deal with the consequences as you go. When it comes to living for Christ, dream a dream so big that you have to be careful who you allow yourself to tell about it. Not only can He make it happen, but someday down the line, you can look back over your shoulder and see how much farther past your original goal He’s taken you.

What do I mean when I talk about a goal or being used greatly for God’s glory? You may not even have a clear picture, or a fully formed idea…you just know that there’s something you keep coming back to over and over. Watch this video; it’s less than 3 minutes, and it does a better job explaining that phenomenon than I can.

I Have To – Promotional Trailer from Christy Fay on Vimeo.

This week is Thanksgiving. You may be getting ready to see someone you don’t see often. For your version of a “beginner’s cliff” to rappel from, here’s my challenge to you: that little thing God’s been whispering in your ear…your “I have to”…tell someone about it. Whether you want to blurt it out for all to hear when you’re sitting around the table, or tell just one person when you’re alone with them and you have the opportunity, say it out loud to someone when you’re together this week. Use this video as a discussion starter if you think it will help. That’s what I did when I got the idea for this blog, which is the start of my “I have to.” I figured that if I told someone, and they didn’t hear about any progress on it, they might ask me about it later. Telling someone was my way of moving the idea outside my head, almost a way of holding myself accountable and setting things in motion.

A little fear is good. It helps keep you alert, focused, and it helps you learn what’s important and what’s not. Too much of it will hold you back and keep your feet from leaving the ground. Everyone gets scared sometimes, but it’s how to deal with it that makes the difference. Don’t let fear prevent you from taking the leap that God’s been whispering in your ear.

God’s invited you on an adventure. I don’t know how big your particular cliff is. He can bring you to the edge, but it’s up to you to hang your heels off the edge and lean out into the void. Trust the rope. Trust your gear. The first few steps are the scariest, but believe me, if God’s prodding you in a certain direction, it’s an invitation to be a part of something special. Take the first step this week by moving that idea outside of your head.