Finding strength in the hard climbs

When the year is not over yet and holidays cannot come soon enough, I wonder if this is what it feels like to be dangling on the end of a rope, with little strength to finish a climb? That’s how I have been feeling of late; well certainly last week when I sat in my car with my head on the steering wheel praying “God give me the strength” before I climbed out and started my working week.

As a person of faith, I am amazed when it feels like I get to the end of myself and cry out to God to help me, that I then manage to find the capacity or I see a miracle. Instead of holding on for grim death, I find a burst of energy to finish the climb in front of me.

What do you do when it feels like you can not go on any further? Who do you turn to? Or are you like me, your first instinct is to give up or find a way to get down, rather than seek the strength to go on?

I do want to finish the climb well this year but I am feeling faint. The climb has been harder than I first imagined. I take encouragement though from the knowledge that in order to increase muscle strength, I must overload my muscle beyond what it was previously capable of doing. In fact, the body will only build muscle when it absolutely has to. In the same way, my spiritual strength will only grow when I push on. I draw courage from knowing that my connection with the divine is there to both spur me on to finish the climb as well as hold on to the rope and prevent me from falling.

And when I finish this year’s climb, maybe I too can say “the best view comes after the hardest climb.”

photo by Samantha Sophie on Unsplash.com