Challenges

Sweat was dripping down my back as I white-knuckled the rock climbing hold.  I reached for another bump on the wall, but my fingers slipped off when I tried to raise my body up further.  My muscles were numb from exhaustion, and my pinching climbing shoes could not grip the plastic bumps covered with white chalk.  Defeat whispered in my ears.

Tonight I went rock climbing at the local gym after not climbing in 3 months.  I haven't worked out my arms since then either, and the muscle required for climbing are not ones used daily.  To put it nicely, I FAILED!  I met a challenge which I could not conquer.  However, the worst part was lacking the will to conquer.  I simply gave up.

I have always been the competitive one, the one who climbed tall mountains, the one who accomplished impossible things.  Whenever I met a challenge, my blue eyes sparkled with a determination to prove stronger than it.  But I have not been challenged in a long time.  In my 14 college credits last semester, I easily achieved good grades.  My job has not stretched me.  When summer ended, my challenging outdoor activities terminated.  Quite frankly, I have succeeded so frequently that I have forgotten how to ascend a brick wall once I have run into it.  I have forgotten how to keep going when the going gets tough.  I can't remember how to embrace a challenge.  Instead, I flee from it.

However, that must change.  I may have failed at rock climbing tonight.  But I am going to lift weights and do push-ups.  I will go back to that wall and conquer it.  I may have forgotten how to continue when difficulty strikes, but I can learn how again.  I will seek out challenges, for I want to be strong in the face of adversity (by His strength alone).

2 Timothy 1:7 ~ For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.