Ropes

image from http://phrecklenosephotography.blogspot.com/2008/04/preview-gym.html

An excerpt from my blog tonight...

Lord, how much and how much more do You push my faith to grow? It’s like climbing a rope to heaven…with every pull of myself up the rope I get closer and I get another taste…I could stop there, but the rope keeps going. With every pull I can get closer than before but it requires more of me. It is much harder than at the beginning. I’m so much farther from the ground than I was when I started. I’m closer to heaven now. I look up and logically, it makes sense to keep going, but emotionally, physically, and spiritually, it makes me wonder how I can keep going on. It’s there that this reserve has to be found…this reserve and strength that only comes from crying out to You, that You would pull my hands one after the other, keeping my grip steady that I would not fall back to where I was at the beginning and have to start all over again.

The end of that rope…is there one? I feel like in the past I would’ve said so, that there are many different ropes we climb in our faith and walk with You, but now, I’m not so sure. It seems like it’s a long, endless one instead, and there are knots that mark our progress of sorts, concrete things that we can stand and rest upon every now and then. But we are not to go back down. We are to continue going.

I remember climbing those ropes in gym in elementary school and particularly in gymnastics. I remember how I used to just climb with my arms or just with my legs providing the strength and how I never got to the top that way. It was only when I realized that every aspect of my body had to be employed in order to get to the top, and it had to have a rhythm to it-hand over hand, followed by the feet, hand over hand, followed by the feet…I vaguely remember the first time I got to the top and it left me in a state of awe in thinking, ‘wow it is easier this way.’ I loved climbing the ropes after that.

I wonder if in my faith I’m trying to use one thing too much. Am I not in the natural rhythm I should be in to climb the rope in the way I should? I don’t see how I can go back now…how I can go back to the bottom of the rope only to climb again. But here, my arms are burning a bit, and there’s a need to look in that reserve and have You pull my hands one after the other, bringing me into His pattern of how I am to best move. I know I must keep climbing, and I must trust You to show me how, even to the extent of letting You do it all.

Count the Cost

This comes from things I've been hearing from other people as to what they are learning and going through, things I see people doing, and things I've seen in my own life. I was sitting listening to worship tonight and this question was on my heart...

Poignant

I don't have many words tonight to verbalize though there does seem a lot swirling around inside. God is faithful. Lately I've been getting and remembering lots of visual things-pictures, dreams, visions, etc, and it seems to be the best outlet right now. Here's a picture I came across tonight that I took a couple of weeks ago. I believe this picture shows many profound metaphors in itself. It is beautiful...hopefully it will be encouraging to others as well.