Are you familiar with what it is?
If you're not, I'll save you the trouble of a Google search.
"to descend a rock face or other near-vertical surface by
using a doubled rope coiled around the body and fixed at a higher point."
The correct technique is to make your body into an "L" shape.
That means that you're in a siting position while you go down.
Backwards.
Off of a cliff.
That technique alone is one of the hardest to grasp- especially to people who have never rappelled before.
I want you to think of a cliff. A high, high cliff. Do you know that weird feeling that you get in your ankles just from standing on or near a cliff? That natural instinct from your body- the warning- hey. That's dangerous. Move.
Can you imagine backing yourself off of that cliff?
Yup. It's a rush.
My dad is an excellent rappelling coach. He's done it for years.
When my dad has people out with him that have never rappelled before, he likes to belay from the top instead of the bottom.
That means that you are attached to an additional rope that he is also attached to, and is holding. With a tiny pinch of his fingers he can stop you from falling, should anything go wrong. He can also help slow you down if you get going to fast. Because he is there at the top, you are safe.
I want to talk about two things that I drew from this.
#1. The "L" Shape.
Because you are backing yourself off and down a cliff, you naturally find yourself wanting to be in a more vertical position, as you try to gain complete control over the situation. But once you are standing vertical, going down gets harder and way way WAY scarier.
But when you completely trust in your harness and the ropes, and sit back into that L position, you realize how much safer you feel. More stable. More secure.
That trick with rappelling is also the trick of life.
When unexpected twists and turns happen in my life, when I feel like I'm walking blind and don't know what is going to happen next, I find myself trying to "stand vertical" to control the situation myself.
I make my life harder and get hurt 100% of the time when I do that.
Sit back in your harness. TRUST.
Your harness is your testimony. What you know. Your faith in God.
Which brings us to #2.
Rappelling is life.
No, I don't mean that I really love rappelling. You know, like "french fries are life" (but they are :P)
No, I mean
Rappelling.
is.
just.
like.
life.
When we were rappelling this weekend my brother Chris brought his sweet girlfriend along. She had never been rappelling before and wanted to have a go.
Everyone else had already gone down, and I was back up for my second time.
I watched and listened as my dad talked to her before she backed off the cliff.
Feeling her nerves, how nervous she had become, he looked calmly into her eyes and said,
"Now when you go down, everyone's going to start telling you what to do. They'll try to tell you to 'do this' or 'do that' , to 'fix this' or 'don't do that', and it is all going to get really confusing.
So just listen to me."
I watched as she slowly began to go down.
Backing off the edge is the hardest and scariest part of the whole thing.
As she was still in the process of backing down,
You could see that fear had completely gripped her for an instant-
Her head shot up and looked at my dad
with a tremble in her voice she pleaded,
"PLEASE DON'T LET ME GO."
Of course my dad wouldn't ever let go of his belay rope. Never in a million years would he do that.
And with Chris at her side, she continued to rappel down.
But here's the thing about rappelling.
Once you get down enough, and you can't really see my dad up there anymore, you begin to feel alone. You realize how much you don't know, and you start to feel scared. And that is the point when you find yourself in a vertical position, rather than an L.
The farther and farther away you get--
the easier it is to forget the man at the top of the rope.
The easier it to ignore what you were to told, and start looking for people around you to tell you what to do instead.
It's life, guys.
God is the man at the top of your ropes.
He is always there.
He doesn't ever, and will never under any circumstance let you go.
He's got you.
Remember that He is there with the other end of your rope in His hands-
and keep going.
-C