I love middle school students. I have had the opportunity to spend large chunks of time with them lately, and it is a really good thing. They are just like adults, just more open and transparent about what they want and think. Adults by contrast, are far better at hiding their desires. On the most recent of my excursions, we were to "Jump the Cliff". This name is particularly odd, because we did not in fact jump and cliffs, unless one considers rappelling to be Cliff jumping. I do not. We did climb cliffs, go caving, hiking, camping, and also hit up Noah's Ark... it was a great time.As we were going about all of this I had the opportunity to climb a couple technical routes on 70ft cliffs. One route was awesome in that I had to climb out from under an overhang to get up... way challenging and fun... the other route I took was really tricky. It was a crack climb, were instead of hand holds, there was a crack in the rock you could sorta jam your hand into and then make a fist. This would give you enough of a hold to keep ascending. It was way hard, but so sweet to conquer.
I also loved caving... it is so fun to squezze through little holes in rocks... On our last day before we left, we did Noah's ark which I had never been to. It was awesome as well. I especially loved the "Point of No Return" It is a straight drop down that is way intense. It even times you... my personal best was 3.3... I am convinced I could break under 3 if I was not afraid it every time.
One really great lesson I thought about was in regard to the similarities between climbing and life. When you climb you have a rope to catch you if you fall. What is most significant about the rope is not its safety features, but rather that it frees you to try things you would never try without it... Faith is the same way... God will catch us if we fall... but maybe even more to the point... we can live in an entirely new way because our faith tells us we are safe to risk new and adventurous things. God will catch us, so why not try bold things for him!
