I went climbing last week with my old friend Kevin and my new friend Karl.  The climbing was indoors on human-made walls where handholds and footholds have been placed in sadistically creative ways. “How did it go,” you may ask…  Well, let’s just say it was a lesson in humility. Kevin and Karl are extremely skilled climbers.  Indeed, as they ascended the various walls, they resembled spider monkeys, seemingly moving upward with little effort. I, on the other hand, felt like a manatee, clearly out of my element and league.

While there is such a thing as solo climbing, most folks do it with at least one other person.  The two people wear harnesses that are connected by a rope.  While one climbs, the other belays.  If the one climbing falls, the one belaying stops the climber from hitting the ground through the use of the rope and some other equipment.  Before beginning to ascend, a climber traditionally turns to the belayer and says, “On Belay”? If ready, the belayer responds, “Belay On”.  The climber then says, “Climbing”.  In turn, the belayer says reassuringly, “Climb”.  It is a very good thing to have an experienced belayer.

So, here’s the thing about climbing…. by definition, before grabbing a higher handhold or placing one’s foot on a higher foothold, one must first release from the lower handhold or foothold.  This is not always as easy as one may think. Sometimes, one isn’t sure that the higher handhold will be as good as the lower one.  At other times, the higher handhold or foothold is just a half inch stretch further than one may wish to extend.  Still other times, one lacks confidence that one has sufficient strength to make the move. Decisions constantly have to be made, and sometimes, quite literally, physical leaps are required.

All of this can be rather terrifying, even paralyzing.  Any sensible person would refuse to participate in the sport were it not for the trust the climber places in the hands of the belayer. If (or, in my case, when) a climber is not able to make the move and falls, the belayer is there to catch them.  Trust is paramount.  While it is a beautiful thing to watch a skilled climber do her or his thing, I believe that it is equally beautiful to watch a belayer standing at the ready at all times and saving the day when needed.

Our lives of faith are similar.  God desires us to probe and seek and grow in our knowledge and love of God. God yearns for us to move outside the protective borders of our little lives in order to serve those in need and on the margins.  This sort of spiritual climbing often requires stretching and straining and gripping. Much of the time, our spiritual journey is uncomfortable. Oftentimes it, like climbing, is downright scary, necessitating the release of preconceived notions or ways of doing things in order to strain upward to the next handhold, to where God’s Spirit is leading. And sometimes, for us to go where God is leading, we need to engage a leap of faith.

This whole spiritual endeavor would be utterly crazy were it not for the fact that we are always “on belay.” God is always with us to lead and to guide and to spur us onward and upward. And as we do so, God stands ready to catch us if and when we fall. I wish I could say that the spiritual journey to which we are called as Christians is easy, but it’s not. The Way of Christ is the Way of the Cross, and the Way of the Cross is always hard. But we are never alone, and God will catch us 100% of the time.

Us: “On Belay?”

God: “Belay On.”

Us: “Climbing.”

God: “Climb!”

~Father Art