You Can’t Climb into God’s Grace

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to Dupont State Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains to do some hiking.  It is an incredibly beautiful section of North Carolina, famous for the number of major waterfalls within its borders.  I was prepared for several miles of walking, but once again, I was surprised by the amount of steep hill climbs and descents the trails involved.  Coming from the Rocky Mountain region, I tended to think of the mountains in this area as gently rolling hills.  But I can assure you they are anything but that.  I have not yet found a hike that didn’t physically challenge me with repeated altitude changes.  This particular day, in my attempt to see every waterfall I could, I hiked to the point of muscle exhaustion – a new experience for me.  There was one more waterfall I wanted to see, but I had no choice except to give up and go home.  That is not at all like me – I am used to pushing on until I meet my goal.  But when you are past pain and tiredness – when your muscles spasm so much you can see them moving under your skin and every step is shaky and slow– you become physically unable to go any further.  Such is the effect of climbing for long periods of time. 

The experience got me thinking a lot about how hard the work of climbing really is.

This was a type of physical exhaustion I had never experienced.  I tried sitting and resting for a few minutes.  I tried drinking lots of water and eating to get some energy back.  I even tried muscle massage and stretching.  But no matter what I did, as soon as I took a few steps up another hill, I was right back at the spasms and exhaustion.  It was even difficult to drive home because I had to push the gas and brake pedals.  I stopped a couple of times to walk out muscle cramps.  The experience got me thinking a lot about how hard the work of climbing really is and how easy it is to work yourself past the point of functioning without even realizing it.

I realized that while this was a new experience for me physically, it had been my way of life spiritually for such a long time.

After my legs recovered and I could reflect, I realized that while this was a new experience for me physically, it had been my way of life spiritually for such a long time.  And that it is still easy for me to slip to the point of exhaustion spiritually.  I had a wrong idea of how to be in relationship with God.  I knew that He was so far above me – holy, set apart and perfect.  I couldn’t figure out any other way to get to Him than to work and climb.  I focused on getting closer to His level of holiness and perfection, never allowing myself any grace when I missed the mark, looking for things to do and ways to serve.  Anything that I thought would please Him and make me more like Him.  Anything to earn His love.  But God is SO far above us that I might as well have been trying to climb Mount Everest without oxygen or gear.  Talk about a steep and challenging climb!  The thing is, compared to what I knew of the world, it made sense.  If there is something higher than you that you want to get to, you have to climb and it is going to be really hard and exhausting.  It is going to hurt.

How do we know when to stop?

There is an analogy I heard that explains how I used to feel in those days.  We, as sinners, are in a deep well.  But God has provided a ladder for us to climb out of the well.  So we start climbing.  Every day we just keep pushing through and climbing as much as we can.  Then, at the end of our lives when we have done all we can do, Jesus reaches down and pulls us up the rest of the way.  It is a hopeless situation, really, because how do we know when to stop?  We become like me on my hike – drinking water, massaging, stretching, anything to try to get in that one more waterfall.  Because maybe if we push through the pain and exhaustion hard enough, we will get one more thing done that day.  But in our attempts to climb up enough, we are exhausting not only our physical bodies.  We are exhausting our souls and our spirits.  And a quick read of the words of Jesus tells us that is not at all what God wants from us.  Jesus told us to come to Him if we are burdened and heavy-laden because He will give us rest.  His work is easy and light.  It is a stroll on a nice, level nature trail – not a death-defying climb up Mount Everest.

I have a Savior who will just reach down and pull me out of it. 

A few years ago, I realized that I could never work my way to God.  I wasn’t capable of climbing enough to become holy and perfect enough to be like Him.  I realized that was not even God’s plan for how to have a relationship with Him.  So since that time, I have thought a lot about the analogy of the well.  I had to do a lot of revising of that story as my understanding of God increased.  First of all, I realized that my well doesn’t have a ladder.  Just like Peter when he stepped out of the boat and started to sink, if I was going under, Jesus could just reach down and pull me back up.  So that became my new analogy.  Yes – I am in a well, but I don’t have to have a ladder.  I have a Savior who will just reach down and pull me out of it.  Which is true, and it is remarkable and beautiful and hope-filled, even at that.  But it gets better than that.

He jumped into the well with me.

The Jesus I know didn’t stop at reaching into the well.  He jumped into the well with me.  He didn’t stay up on high.  He came down to my level, becoming human and setting aside His divine attributes to experience the bottom of the cold, dark, damp well with me.  There was no longer any need to climb anywhere.  He was right there with me.  I didn’t even have to do enough work to reach up and take His hand.  Even more, He humbled Himself to a position lower than me.  He became the servant.  He showed this when He washed the disciples’ feet.  That was the lowest, most socially humble position He could take.  And then He went even further and allowed Himself to be put up on the cross – the height of shame, dishonor, pain, and suffering.  He literally got down into the muck of the well, took on all of the failed attempts to climb, all of the muscle cramps and spasms, all of the sweat and exhaustion.  And from that place of lowness, He lifted me out of the well.  My only job in the whole thing was to fall into His arms and let Him carry me.  That, my dear friends, is the definition of God’s grace.

Sometimes the falling is even harder than the climbing. 

So many things about God seem to be counterintuitive by the world’s standards.  To get God’s grace we can’t climb into it.  We can’t do anything to achieve it.  All we can do is let go and fall into it.  But sometimes the falling is even harder than the climbing.  Falling means you have to let go of your pride.  Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  When we give up our pride, we give up our ability to take credit for anything we accomplish in God’s name.  We agree to take on humility.

Letting go of control is perhaps the most frightening step of submitting to God.

Falling also means you have to give up control.  When we are working, we feel like something about God’s love and grace depends on us, so we can alter the outcome in our favor.  We like to feel like we have some control over our destiny.  But we cannot control God.  Proverbs 19:21 tells us, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”  The idea that we can control anything, let alone our lives, better than the God who created us and knows all things from all eternity to all eternity is really ridiculous.  But letting go of control is perhaps the most frightening step of submitting to God.

When it comes to God, we ALL have trust issues.

Ultimately, letting go means having complete trust in God.  In psychological circles, they talk about some people having trust issues.  But when it comes to God, we ALL have trust issues.  We doubt He hears us when our prayers are not immediately answered.  We doubt He will provide for us when things start to get tough.  We doubt He loves us when we get hurt.  Letting go and falling into Him means we trust He will catch us.  It makes me think of the “team building” exercise I once went through.  They made me stand up on a chair with a bunch of people from my team standing behind me.  Then I was supposed to fall back and trust they would catch me.  It was supposed to make me trust them more in the work environment.  It was pretty hard to do, I have to say.  But I did it, and so did everyone else.  It was easier to trust other humans in a setting like that than it is to totally trust God sometimes, who promises us He will always catch us and never breaks His promises.  Remember Isaiah 41:10:  “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Please quit climbing to meet God.  That’s not where He is waiting for you.

You are not going to get out of the wells of this life on your own.  You are not going to get out of this life and into heaven on your own.  You don’t have the ability to.  Only Jesus had the ability to do that, because only He was both God and man at the same time.  We are not.  Please quit climbing to meet God.  That’s not where He is waiting for you.  He is underneath you with His hand outstretched to catch you and lift you up into His love, His hope, His grace, His forgiveness, and eventually into His heaven.  Fall into that hand by acknowledging that you need Him.  Set aside your pride, your control, and your doubt.  Better yet, repent of them.  Acknowledge that only Jesus can save you.  It is a whole lot easier to ride in His hand to the top of the well than to try to climb.  My spirit and my hiking legs can both attest to that.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.