The one time I tried rock climbing and cried

Man, so many things have happened since we’ve last chatted. It seems unreal that I was in the States 4 weeks ago! Re-immersion was a mess; I sort of just slept until my body got used to the heat. Then I skipped on over to Myanmar for a super awesome visa run! And then last weekend I rock climbed and it changed my life for forever.

The Gal Pals

Let me explain.

So, three pals and me drive to this wonderful climbing camp like 3 hours outside Bangkok and I climb for the first time in my life and y’all its like so tough like I consider myself to be an active, fit human but hot dang not fit enough to master the mountains. On my second climb I am on the struggle bus. I can see what my body needs to do but my foot refuses to stretch that way and I don’t trust my arm’s ability to pull my body up and I’m crying out of total frustration. Jodi, my trusty belay, is calmly encouraging me: “just take a rest, look at it from a different angle, you can get it.”

And then BAM it hits me. I’ve been working on re-grounding my identity in Christ which is hard work and, for me at least, brings up a ton of past gunk I don’t care to think about and my soul get weary from all the work and processing and thinking and I would rather not do that. My brain KNOWS what I need to do but my heart doesn’t trust that I have the strength to do the work. Just like my body on that rock. And, right when I was crying and frustrated on the rock climbing route, right as Jodi started encouraging me, God came along and whispered, “I too want you to rest and look at your life from a different angle. I’ve got you.”

Taken on the second day, crying was also involved on this route as well as a sloth like climb to the top.

Jodi’s and God’s encouragement propelled me upwards and I finished that route victoriously! Well, more like as slowly as a snail coupled with tons of rest and cursing but completed. And I intend to do that with my identity learning as well. God got me up the actual mountain and I know he can carry me up this metaphorical one as well.