Monday nights is Gladiator night; regular athletes get to take on a breed of seemingly super-humans in an arena that is designed to press your limits. Thousands show up to see this in person and millions tune in via television. We are fascinated to see limits pressed and effort given. Most of us sit on the couch being the bench warming coaches we've becoming, telling the contenders exactly what to do and how they "should" be doing things when they are likely doing better than we ever could.
June of 2008 my family had our first family vacation ever and enjoyed every minute of it. We took our churches teenagers up to Lake Ann Camp in Lake Ann, MI, and stayed the week ourselves in a beautiful log cabin on the camp's grounds. We did not have much interaction with our teen campers but did see them from time to time. One such occasion was as they were scaling "Goliath". Goliath, named after the giant whom David overcame but the hand of God, is a Gladiator style 4o' tall climbing course that is straight up. You begin on the ground and climb a 10' rope ladder to a swaying 4x6 beam held by cables between two trees. Above that beam 4' is another beam, then another at 6' above that, and another at 8' above that. Above the top beam by 10' is a bell hanging just waiting to be rung. All of this held together by cables and is swaying at every breath of wind. 4 people at a time would scale this behemoth and attempt to ring the bell at the top; but there is more to it than that.
Lake Ann makes it a point to show the campers that God is in every part of our life, and every part of our life should reflect God. So what does "Goliath" have to do with God?
Before climbing a goal was set. Each group had to determine what there level of completion would be, how much were they going to conquer; would they sell themselves short or press themselves all the way? This is paralleled to the issues we face in life and temptations that try to get us to sell short in our walk with God. The course was assembled so that you could not complete it on your own, even if you were an American Gladiator; you had to rely on the people around you. Team work and trust were key elements to reach the top and have 100% completion, just as it is in our Christian walk. We can try to run a strong Christian walk all alone, but that is not how God designed it, we are a body and must work as a community to encourage and support each other to reach for God and draw closer to Him. So, where is the "God" in this Goliath thing? Each person had to strap on a harness before climbing; there's God. See, no matter how bad the climbers may mess up and even fall, they would be caught. Yes, they may lose some ground and have to re-climb some areas they had already conquered, but they were safe and secure in the harness. (The boole' rope holding the harness was also held by other teen campers on their team, talk about trust.)
Such is true in our walk with God. We watch others around us and tell them how to run their Christian walk just like we sit on our couch and tell the contenders how to compete with the Gladiators, when we are the one on the sidelines, and they are the ones in the action. We must take the step to begin climbing the "Goliath's" in our lives and realize that there is support and encouragement around us in the body of Christ, and that God will be there to for us in case we may slip and lose some ground. Remember, "Not succeeding because you are afraid to fail is failure also. Begin to overcome the Goliath's in your life today.
And for you who are thinking I am just a sideline couch for Goliath and couldn't have done it myself... While I was watching our group the camp director told me they were one person short for the next group and asked if I could do it with them. I did.
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