Releasing Control

It has been a long time since I have been afraid of the mountain. I tackle it with confidence and enjoy doing so. I enjoy throwing myself forward to let gravity do its job. Skiing is so exciting to me. It’s letting everything go and releasing my own control to let forces do their work to pull me down. There is a point where there is no returning, no going back; you must let yourself “fall” to complete the turn. To become a good skier, you must realize that you have to let go of controlling yourself and just let gravity do the work. Leaning forward will keep you in control, going with gravity and not against it; if you lean backwards, you will lose control/balance and probably fall. I’m slowly applying this analogy to my relationship with God. Like on the mountain, I am beginning to throw myself forward and let God do His work. Sometimes I get scared and lean backwards in my imaginary boots trying to control myself, but that only leads to an out of control attempt at gliding down the mountain of life, usually ending up with me on the ground. Another thing I have learned about skiing is that it is a series of repeated recoveries. Skiing involves repeatedly recovering from almost falling. Life may just be that way often as well. God is helping us to repeatedly recover from our near- falls (and those times where we do end up fallen on the ground) if we only lean forward to let Him do His job and enjoy the thrill of going down the mountain of life. Releasing control of myself and my fears in order to let God take me on a wild adventure – it’s exciting when I let Him, just as it’s exciting gliding down that literal mountain, tackling it, leaning forward to let gravity pull me around my turns. It truly is an exhilarating run.

For another take, from a slightly different perspective, on faith and skiing: Click Here

I like analogies.