Maddie and I were climbing at Big Rock last week when I saw a climb that looked interesting. We didn’t have time to climb it, and it was graded higher than I am currently climbing. It looked doable from the ground. I thought about this climb on and off all week. I have been climbing harder short routes on the wall in the garage well, but I have been on mostly easy climbs outside. I haven’t tested my endurance.

Today we were able to get back up to Big Rock to give this climb a go. Let’s just say that I got kicked in the mouth. I was able to get up the climb, but I fell a several times. Needless to say, I’m not in the climbing shape that I thought I was…not weak as dishwater, but close.

20 years ago, I’d be pretty upset…scratch that…I would have been furious with a poor showing like today, but I was just happy to get out and climb. I thanked God for the blessing of health, the ability to get out and enjoy the outdoors, and most of all for being able to spend time with Maddie.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

What a blessing it is to recognize what you have instead of focusing on what you don’t have.

Because He Calls, Old Climbing Dad