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Monday 7 June 2010
Have you ever in your life been, literally, scared stiff? Have you ever found yourself so frightened that you really couldn't move?
It happened to me earlier this year high up in the French Alps. Against my better judgement I had been persuaded to try out my dodgy knees and dubious physique at skiing - seriously bad move! After a few slithers and slides on an easy slope down below, I mounted the chair lift to go much higher up. At the top I couldn't work out how to get out of the wretched thing, and ended up pitching headfirst into the snow, which was not a good start.
After that I edged away from the lift to the point where my physical terror really began to kick in. To one side was a sheer drop with a graphic warning sign of somebody falling on it. To the other was a ridiculously steep run with skiers flying off down it. In front of me was the small slope to the start of the run, down which I was meant to move. "Just side step" said my instructor "you can't go wrong" Oh yes I can, I thought - and moved not a muscle!
When we find ourselves in trouble, God never offers to get us out of it. He never offers to wave a magic wand and make it go away. Instead he offers to go through it with us, never leaving us alone. "I am with you always" were practically the last words Jesus ever said to his friends. In the midst of trouble he's there beside us - helping us out step, by step by step.
In the end my patient instructor skied effortlessly up beside me and explained that he would accompany me. As I took each step, so he would as well - always on the downhill side of the mountain so he would be there to catch me if I fell. And in that way we progressed - he would take a step, and I would shuffle a step safe in the knowledge that he was there to lean on. It took us a while - like a couple of crabs inching down the snowy slope, but we did it in the end.
Here's the thing though. The instructor was my son. I might have helped him to walk years ago, but he's the one who helped his petrified old man down off the mountain.
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