The Climb by Lori Hadorn-Disselkamp

Our lives are like the largest playground ever, filled with equipment of every type; swings, sliding boards, see saws, fake rock walls and other climbing equipment. Our children play on it all.They run through the equipment as they play freeze tag and challenge themselves on the equipment. The climbs are usually the most challenging. The playground helps in fundamental ways for our children to tackle life head on. Children run straight to the thing that gives them the most pleasure usually the item that they have conquered and feel most confident.

In our lives we exist on that playground. When we wake up in the morning how often do we decide we want to take a challenge and climb to the top of something we know will be difficult? How often do we wake up and want a normal low key day full of the swings, cool, refreshing yet "the same old" routine? Sometimes we think let's take a slide and have a little more fun today but let's not make it difficult. Life throws challenges our way through our family, children and work places that we would most likely not have chosen freely. Challenges we must climb if we want to succeed in any way. The majority of us are just happy with the everyday swings or see saws, they are easy, reliable and we have conquered them before.

God challenges us if we listen in the breaking of the dawn by whispering "today try climbing something new, try helping someone, try going outside your comfort zone and accepting everyone, try loving everyone you see today, try locking eyes with a stranger, try being kind, try to not talk about anyone except with care and kindness, try loving with actions those who don't love you back, today try the climb." We rarely hear the challenge because we don't pause to listen or we think that post we read about kindness on face book or in the newspaper doesn’t really apply to "me". The climb will make us sweaty, uncomfortable, out of breath and what if we don't make it to the top and we feel defeated, what then?

Tomorrow morning after your alarm clock goes off stay in bed for a minute or two and listen, pause, lay there and listen. Wait a moment before your day begins and consider your thoughts is God asking you to climb somehow, to take a new challenge? Will you do it? Will you step outside of your comfort zone? Tomorrow listen and choose to climb.