After what seems like months (probably only weeks, but still…) where a dewpoint of 70 degrees held the position of low-point baseline and where approaching 80 degrees was considered normal, the windows are now open and I can breathe again!
Thank you Tropical Depression Gordon, I guess. The welcome cooler temperatures are also bringing a good deal of precipitation, but that’s a story for another day.
So, why did my thoughts turn to skiing!
That’s right, like in ‘snow’ skiing! (I guess I must have been hotter than I thought!)
Well, we went skiing and had a great time - but I wasn’t very good any more.
I remember that it took a quite while to learn this sport in ‘my day’.
Struggling down slopes using counter-rotational French style ski-navigation while antique trappings bound flexible boots onto very long boards was the norm. (Trust me. Learning was much harder than it is now. And yes, I walked 3 miles to school in blizzards too!)
Any advancement required something approaching Olympic-style dedication. And that was just to graduate from snow-plough maneuvering to the artistry of the ‘stem-christie’.
Style and technique were seen as more important than reaching the bottom of the hill as one complete human, with all of one’s appendages left as God made them.
I remember the best advice received during these more than frustrating years:
“Whenever possible, ski with people who are better than you if you want to get better yourself.”Apparently, if you stop skiing with people who are better than you, the reverse is also true. It’s especially noticeable if you stop skiing altogether!
In today’s world, people learn to ski much faster. They learn on shorter skis. Style and technique are more ‘free style’ than structured. Parallel skiing has left the French behind in favor of wider-stance carved turns and free style skiing. It’s more relaxed and the results are simpler and quicker. It's also a lot more fun. I could probably learn again in no time!
It doesn’t take much of a reach to see a parallel (pun intended) between learning to ski and striving to be Jesus-like people.
Like the old way of learning to ski, we struggle with technique, style and results. But we’re no longer bound with the rules of the Old Testament. Christ bought and paid for a new way, a simpler way, a quicker way for us to learn and be more Kingdom-like.
We should still listen to the ‘best advice’ listed above because we can ski with the very best – with Jesus.
And as long as we do, we’ll learn how to love – our God, ourselves and our neighbors. We’ll learn how to become what we’re made to be and we’ll do this without the burden of defined technique and style. We can live free-style.
Now maybe you’re having trouble visualizing a day on the mountain with Jesus.
Maybe it's difficult to imagine both of you wrapped up in heavily insulated, thermal, water-resistent outerwear surrounded by piles of white.
Maybe it's challenging to observe yourself flying downhill in the quiet stillness of nature hearing the slightest whisper of wood (well, fiberglass laminate perhaps) against the slippery flakes covering the landscape as you follow the Creator of earth on skis.
Maybe it's disconcerting to connect a crazy dance of man and nature with an image of Jesus speeding downhill with opaque clouds of snow swirling in his wake.
Maybe it’s a stretch to hear Jesus laughing while enjoying His creation of winter – with you!
And maybe, that’s the problem.
- When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
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