Meeting Jesus At the Rock: A Parable of the Christian Life In Rock Climbing

By Jay Neuman

Rock climbing is a spiritual experience. Spending time in nature is spending time in God's cathedrals. The ones he has made with his own hands. This book started as an outline for a five day rock climbing course and spiritual workshop. Each morning would start out with a rock climbing lesson. The group would then spend the day climbing and practicing the skills from that day's lesson. In the afternoon, there would be a time of life application and discussion. Then the book took on a life of its own.

What started as a few spiritual lessons learned through interacting with God's creation became a parable for our life's journey through five stages of spiritual maturity. Along the way, it presents a roadmap to a deeper and more genuine Christian faith.

This new version includes a 7-part bible study discussion guide - Seven Spiritual Principles of Rock Climbing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257591725

Book preview

Meeting Jesus At the Rock: A Parable of the Christian Life In Rock Climbing

Meeting Jesus

At The Rock

A Parable of the Christian Life

In Rock Climbing

Jay Neuman

Copyright

Copyright  2010 Jay Neuman

All Rights Reserved

Dedication

Dedicated to my parents

Burt and Sue, who taught me to

love my neighbor and to live authentically

Introduction

This book started as an outline for a five-day rock climbing course and spiritual workshop.  The idea was to use rock climbing as a way to connect people to a deeper and more genuine Christian faith.  Each morning would start out with a rock climbing lesson.  The group would then spend the day climbing and practicing the skills from that day’s lesson.  In the afternoon, there would be a time of life application and discussion.  The group would talk about how their experiences from the day can be applied to our spiritual lives.  The chapters of this book were to be a discussion guide for the workshop. 

After I began writing, however, the book took on a life of its own.  Rock climbing has always been a spiritual experience for me.  Spending time in nature is spending time in God’s cathedrals.  The ones he has made with his own hands.  As I was writing out the spiritual insights I have gotten from climbing, I began to gain new insights into my entire Christian life.  These five core rock climbing lessons became for me a parable of five stages in my own Christian life.  My faith has been deeply tested these past few years.  I am only now coming out the other end of a long difficult time of searching.  As I have been writing, a new perspective has begun to emerge of the path I have taken to this point and of the path ahead.

The book is still divided into five basic rock climbing lessons.  However, the chapters have transmogrified (a fun word I learned from Calvin and Hobbs).  It started as a few discussion points meant to prompt a conversation.  It has become a parable for our life’s journey through five stages of spiritual maturity.

Our lives are a work of art in the hands of a master artist.  If we look for it, we can see the hand of the artist at work in our day-to-day lives.  His hand can be seen especially as we interact with his creation in nature.  Climbing a route can be viewed as God’s poetry.  A simple set of moves can have multiple parallels to experiences in our lives and in our spiritual journeys.  In a large way, this book is about discovering that poetry.

A skilled poet can weave many layers of meaning into a single verse.  That interplay of words can be viewed in different lights to reveal a variety of meaning.  One of the most famous examples of this in American poetry is The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost.  The poem ends…

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference"

The poem just sits there.  And yet, it continues to speak.  The same thing happens in rock climbing.  I have tried to bring to life the experience of rock climbing as best I can.  Each lesson can be viewed as a stanza and each climbing move a verse.  I have filled up the pages of this book with my own thoughts on those verses, as I have experienced them.  I hope those thoughts will be useful.  Still, there is far more that has not been written than has been.  Think of this book as an invitation to discover the poetry of a life with Jesus for yourself. 

Meeting Jesus at the Rock

Chapter 1:

The Approach

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him, we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1

My first climb was at Point Dume, a relatively secluded beach in Malibu, California.  It is a beautiful place to climb.  We drove to a parking lot at the end of a long road, away from the typical Southern California beach crowd.  We were the first car in the lot.  You could taste the salty air blowing off the ocean in a crisp sea breeze.  The blue sky was still obscured by morning mist.  We unloaded our gear from the car.  Then we walked to the end of the parking lot.  Two hundred yards farther, across the sand, a wall of rock spanned the entire end of the beach.  On the seaward side, waves crashed against boulders piled up at its base.  There were no other people on the beach.  Seeing that wall at Point Dume for the first time felt like the day as a kid at the amusement park when I was finally tall enough to ride the big rides.

We had been doing practice climbs in the climbing gym for a few weeks before that day.  Plus, I had spent my entire childhood climbing trees and playing on rocks, so I felt confident.  That was looking at it from a distance.  It was still a few hundred yards away.  Then we walked across the beach.  When I got close enough to touch the wall, I discovered what appeared to be a nearly vertical slab of rock, five stories tall.  There were no visible hand or footholds.  That jolt of excitement up my spine turned into a knot of fear in my stomach.  I had never climbed anything like this before!  Still, people climb here all the time, so I knew it could be done.

Every climb starts with a wall.  There usually is a trail or rocky scramble through rustic scenery to get to the wall.  At Point Dume, it is a walk across a beautiful beach.  The wall itself is the highlight.  To the average day hiker, their trail ends at the wall.  For the rock climber, that is where adventure begins.  The Christian life is meant to be like this.

That trail or scramble or walk on the beach up to the wall is called The Approach.  What separates you as the rock climber from the average day hiker is the rock climber expects the wall.  You are prepared to climb the wall.  You look forward to climbing the wall.  That is what walls are there for.  To be climbed! 

You are prepared, first, with gear to reach the top of a wall safely.  Second, you are prepared with climbing partners who have experience climbing walls.  Most importantly, you are prepared with the attitude that walls of rock are meant to be climbed.  In other words, you have faith.  Faith that the approach would be just a walk in the park without the challenges only a wall can give. 

Day 1 Climbing Lesson: 

Pre-Climb Safety and Preparation

My favorite place to put on a beginner climbing clinic is the Point Dume wall where I first climbed.  It is a fantastic place to climb.  Plus, there are a range of different routes in the beginner to intermediate level.  There is actually one route much easier than the one we climbed my first day. We just did not know about it. 

Over the next few pages you will join a group of rock climbers as we walk through the first day’s climbing lesson.  Then we will see how each step parallels our spiritual journey as Christians. 

You arrive in the parking lot with a small group of new climbers.  It is early, so there are still plenty of parking spaces.  You step out of your car and onto the sand.  The smell of saltwater in the air and the ocean breeze is like a refreshing cup of morning coffee.  Then, you make the trek across the sandy beach to the base of the wall.  A rope is already set up on a route called The Arete.  This is a 70-foot intermediate route along the razor edge corner of the wall.  For the entire climb up the Arete you are treated to the view and sounds of Pacific Ocean waves splashing against rocks piled at the base of the wall directly below you.  For movie buffs, you will recognize the spot as the location of the buried Statue of Liberty in the concluding scene of the original Planet of the Apes movie.  We have laid out a blue tarp on the sand in front of the route with all the gear you will need.      

It is your first day of rock climbing.  You begin with a short lesson on climbing safety.  Your instructor starts out by explaining the gear you need for the climb.  Then he explains how to climb in partnership with your belayer.  The end of the Day 1 lesson is a few words of encouragement about the mental attitude you will need to climb the wall. 

Safety note: Only a portion of the basic climbing safety lesson is included here.  Before you climb for real, you must receive a full safety instruction from an experienced climber.

Your Gear

You join a group of six to eight people standing around the blue tarp at the base of the wall.  You see a pile of climbing shoes of various sizes.  Most of the shoes are orange with black Velcro straps.  The shoe size is written in magic marker on the side of each shoe.  Next to the pile of shoes, a half a dozen harnesses of various sizes are laid out. Next to those are two helmets and two chalk bags.  A rope has already been set up and is hanging on the rock.  The two ends of the rope are piled up on the tarp at the base of the wall.  Looking upward, you can just barely make out the red strips of webbing and silver carabineers from the anchor holding the rope at the top of your route.  A climb ends when you touch that anchor.  That is your goal for Day 1.

Rock climbing is inherently a dangerous sport.  There can be, and are tragic accidents.  That is why it is critical to be equipped before you climb.  You need the right gear.  You need to know how to use that gear properly.  Most importantly, you need to develop an attitude of respect for your gear. 

When you go out with experienced climbers, they are very particular about taking care of their gear.  They will not drag their rope in the dirt, to prevent sharp fragments of rock from cutting against it.  If a carabineer is dropped onto a rock from more than three feet, it will be thrown away.  It could have gotten a hairline crack.  Experienced climbers are even more particular about using their gear the way it is meant to be used.  Their life literally depends on it.

There are five basic pieces of equipment every rock climber must have.  This is the basic stuff a beginner climber will be using.  Your instructor asks for a volunteer to demonstrate how to use the gear.  He picks you.

1.  Climbing Shoes

The first thing you do is dig through the pile for a pair of climbing shoes in your size.  You put them on.  Climbing shoes are tight fitting leather shoes with a very hard rubber soul.  Before you even strap the Velcro in place, you immediately notice your toes are pressed all the way into the tip of each shoe.  As you pull the straps, they are squeezing your feet uncomfortably tight.  You think, "Oh, I must have the wrong size, I