Climbing Rocks
“do not give the devil a foothold” -Confessions of a rock climber.
Hi. My name is Todd and I climb rocks. (This is where you say “Hi Todd”)
Never in the history of rock climbing has anyone accidentally found themselves at the top of a great climb and wondered how they got there. People don’t just find themselves at the pinnacle of a rock wall. There is only one way to get the top- One good foothold/handhold at a time.
If you don’t want to go to the top, you don’t start the climb. If you do not want to be on the top of that mountain, you have no reason to even find good hand placement and you don’t need to get a foothold to begin with, right?
Sin is the same way. I don’t know how many times I have done the wrong thing over and over & found myself in a spiritual mess (on top of some mountain I have no business being on) and wonder “How on earth did I get here”? -Well… One foothold/handhold at a time…. How do you think you got here?
Why do we have a tendency to play around with sin nature? Why would we ever soak in our anger as if we are somehow very important? Why would we ever allow anything other than humbleness and love to saturate our thinking? Why would we ever allow something into our thinking that does not coincide with the way that The Christ would think?
Every time I even start to allow that type of attitude or thinking to infiltrate my life, I might not be fully surrendering to sin (rock climbers call it “Topping Out”) but I am most certainly allowing the devil to have a foothold, and then the climb begins…
After all, If you do not want to be on the top of that mountain, you have no reason to even find good hand placement and you don’t need to get a foothold to begin with, right?
Thanks Todd…I appreciate your words anid challenge on a number of levels. I think we (i.e., I) will often waste time trying to explain away and/or cast blame on something/someone else…rather than humbly recognizing and admitting that it was ourselves…our sin…our little decision after progressive little decision that got us there. Thank you for putting this rock climbing image to this process that I allow happen in my heart and mind. Oh…and thank you too for your friendship and ALL you do for my kids/family. Love you my friend.
Todd,
You are awesome.
Later,
Phillip