Snowboarding and the Christian Life

As you know from my last post, I went snowboarding this past Saturday. It was my first time so I had to be taught everything. I had to be shown how to steer, balance, adjust my speed, and of course how to stop. By the end of the day I had most of the basics pretty much down and was ready to move on to the more advanced slopes and challenges. But I was out of time. Looking back now I wish I had been less cautious about trying out the harder slopes since that’s probably the only chance I’ll have there this season. Now this is a good example of what we see in our lives as Christians. When we first start out, we have to be taught everything. We must be taught how to make our way through life and how to steer, if you will, through the many trials and obstacles we face. We must be taught to keep a proper balance in our life between our ministry to those in the world, but also our ministry to those in our own home. We must balance between the things of God and the things of this world. Also we must be taught to adjust the speed of our lives. Not always being so busy that we wear ourselves out (burning the candle at both ends) but at the same time not merely meandering through life at an easy pace. And of course we must be taught when and where we must stop in our Christian walk to make sure we are still in God’s plan for our lives. So just like me snowboarding, as Christians we have to learn the basics. But then, again like me, as Christians we many times learn the basics and then just keep practicing those basics for the rest of our lives. We never move beyond those first easy slopes because we’re too timid and cautious to try those more advanced slopes. Instead of gaining new heights every day, we just wander around on the lowest couple of plateaus planning on climbing those heights later on in life. We go through the motions and never try anything difficult. Like me we may try the more difficult slopes a few times and decide to stick with the simple ones. Then we near the end of our lives and realize that those more advanced trials and obstacles had to be conquered earlier in life. When we are out of time it is too late. We cannot go back and give it a second try because the season has passed. Just like I did not know that the weather would warn this next week, even so we as Christians do not know the day or the hour that our Savior will call us home. So let live our lives today to the fullest, taking new ground, overcoming those obstacles that slow us down, and always keep pressing on the upward way. Because tomorrow may be too late.