The Climb

GUEST BLOGGER: Patrick Ringrose

The Climb, Up and to the Right, is how Fellowship Church illustrates the spiritual journey of following Christ Jesus. It’s a representation of a graph ascending from lower left to upper right; the spiritual ascent of following Jesus - leaving the human consciousness in the lower places and journeying ever higher towards our God and Creator, through a relationship with His Son, the Lord Christ. However, in life, in faith and in business, it’s never a smooth, straight line; there are peaks and valleys. Yet the goal is to keep the line pushing ever higher. 

 There is a storm in Matthew, Chapter 8.  Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat when a furious storm suddenly arises. The apostles, although highly experienced sailors/commercial fishermen, are terrified and wake up Jesus to save them. When life’s storms appear, I have always tried to face them by manning the helm and trying to adjust the sails. I always felt the need to take action. But in trying to do works to ‘earn’ my relationship with Jesus, I have missed an incredibly important, subtle point. 

 There are sisters; Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, when Jesus is a guest in their home. Martha feels that she has to do a flurry of things to be a good servant to the Lord; Mary simply chooses to sit at Jesus’ feet and absorb His Word. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has made the better choice. 

 So, in the middle of the storm, I can take my hands off of the sails and the helm and go be with Jesus. When this first dawned on me I wasn’t in a great place emotionally, and have to admit there was a moment of ‘to hell with it; if He’s not going to worry, why should I?’ After a few moments of reflection, I realized that this was the wrong attitude (brilliant, huh?). What is needed is to adopt the attitude of Mary and go be in the Lord’s presence. To go, like a child, to where He is sleeping, lay my head upon his breast and listen to the beating of his heart in the midst of the tempest.

 The storm surprised me, but it wasn’t a surprise to Him. He is there in the boat with us - after all, getting into the boat and crossing the lake was His idea in the first place. Instead of trying to do and control everything (Martha), I need to let go, move closer to Him, and let God (Mary).

This brings me back to Up & to the Right. On the trek up this mountain, this walk of faith, it’s important to stop and rest from time to time. To rest, recuperate and recharge the batteries. We’ll need the strength as the angle becomes steeper and the air becomes thinner. 

Mary knew the answer. Unplug from the busyness and plunge into His Holiness today!