Coming Down Is Not An Option

As a liberal arts college, Hollins University has always prided itself on sending well-rounded, educated women out into the world. Hollins required students to take courses in a variety of disciplines, including physical education. Now, maybe you don’t know this about me but I am not an athletics enthusiast. I exercise a minimal amount because it is good for my health. The only time I run is if I am being chased, and I agree whole-heartedly with Joan Rivers who once said,... “If God had wanted me to bend over he would have put diamonds on the floor.” During my final year at Hollins, I had put it off long enough and I needed another physical education credit in order to graduate, as did my friend Meagan. Meagan convinced me that our only real option was Rock Climbing! “Come on Buddy (this is our nickname for each other), it will be fun!” Don’t be alarmed, there was no scaling of the sheer rock face atop Tinker Mountain… Hollins actually has a climbing wall in the gymnasium. After a few weeks of instruction, learning how to tie knots and belay one another, Buddy and I were doing well in the class (in all honesty I grumbled the entire time), but I had yet to make it to the top of the wall. One afternoon I was taking my turn scaling the wall and I called out, “Okay Buddy, I am ready to come down.” It was not my amazing partner who called back up to me, it was Jon Guy our instructor, and he had taken charge of my rope! “No Buddy,” he teased me “you are not ready to come down, keep going.” Here’s another little secret about me, I can be stubborn and down-right defiant! So, I just let go of the wall and swung around in the air while he held me there. I went from feeling a little tired of climbing to an attitude of, “no I am not climbing any higher and you can’t make me.” Jon Guy laughed at me and reminded me that it wasn’t difficult for him to let me dangle in the air, basically he could hold me there the rest of the afternoon so I had a choice to make, but coming down to the floor as not an option… it was either swing or climb. I don’t remember if I made it to the top of the wall that day, but I do remember finally trying. As frustrated as it made me that day, and as difficult as it is for me to admit it, Jon Guy taught me a valuable lesson that afternoon. It was one thing for me to give it my best shot and not reach the top, but it was another for me to give up before I had fulfilled my potential. We all have instances where we want to stop doing something, we feel like we cannot go further or achieve anything better, but I am here today to tell you that in our Christian faith, coming down to the floor should not be an option.

(Originally written as a sermon example in 2012)