Mike had traveled to Colorado for a family reunion. Arriving early, he decided to do some free climbing, an extreme rock climbing sport. He had no equipment, and he failed to tell anyone of his plans. Mike went off alone, thinking,“I’ll climb for a while, be done in a couple of hours, and then head off to the family reunion.”Life, however, doesn’t always go as planned.
Free climbing takes more chances than the typical rock climber challenge. Mike had no ropes, no spikes, no hammer, no protection, and no companion. That’s the challenge.“I can do this!”
Finding ledges, actually, slivers that could only accommodate his fingertips and the occasional narrow crevice, Mike forged on and up. He’d find places for his fingertips, and there were fissures interspersed in the cliff face as he climbed. The higher Mike went, the more difficult his climb.
At one crucial point, Mike slipped the fingers of his left hand into a split in the rock face. However, he was unable to find a reachable hold for the edge of his right boot. As he scraped his booted foot across the rock face below, searching for a suitable hold, he realized there was a big problem.The more he focused on his foot dilemma, the less he focused on losing his grip on the rock ledge above his head.
Suddenly, fearing the worst, his confidence vanished and he fell. Mike abruptly stopped falling when his body met the ground. He fell 75 feet! The velocity of his trajectory was 69.47 feet/second when his fall abruptly ended.
He lay motionless, defeated. He was alone. Or was he? Both of his legs were shattered. His left arm twisted into a deformed mass. Both legs would have to be amputated below his knees.
As a Christian, Mike knew that he was not alone at the bottom of that cliff. Help eventually came, and after months in the hospital, multiple surgeries, and months of physical therapy, Mike’s life came together again, not like before, but with new challenges.
Prayer is sometimes all we have at our fingertips. Unless we talk to God, what else can we do? When we pray, we are never truly alone.
The apostle Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
Remember to pray in any and every circumstance in your life. God cares for you! (1 Peter 5:7)