Falling Rocks, Fallen Climbers

12. December 2007 by BruceSmith.

In the movie Nacho Libre, Jack Black plays the role of a friar/pro-wrestler wanna be. I know, it sounds ridiculous! And ridiculous it is indeed, ridiculous and profound on a number of levels. If you have not seen the movie you may want to give it a look just for the sheer fun of it.

In Nacho Libre, Jack/Nacho, has left the “world” in pursuit of a deeper and more meaningful existence in service to God and to orphans. His role as a friar is to care for a number of orphaned children on a daily basis. The trouble for Nacho, however, is that he is finding the climbing aspect of his calling too much to bear. He loves the children, but he cannot stand the spiritually oppressive environment in which he is forced to work. Nacho comes alive when he is directly involved with the kids, but he is miserable when he feels forced to jump through religious hoops set up for him by the religious leaders which surround and instruct him on a daily basis.

As the movie unfolds, we come to find that Nacho’s lifelong ambition is to be a warrior for God, in a wrestling ring. Nahco wants to wrestle and care for orphans. He fantasizes about doing both. Problem is, the religious authorities who run the show, view wrestling as evil, and therefore, not a valid pursuit for a Godly man. Eventually, the angst with which Nacho has been living over his predicament catches up with him, and he decides that it is time to bail. Rather than play a role he is not compelled to buy into, Nacho runs out of the monastery and he walks out on the orphans. If he cannot have both dreams (caring for orphans and wrestling) he decides neither is worth having. He no longer wants to follow his “leaders” into battle anymore.

There are moments in life which cause each of us to consider why we are living and what we are living for. For many it seems like each step up the mountain amounts to just another attempt to dodge a falling rock. Hit by one rock too many on the uphill climb, we are tempted to forgo the remainder of the adventure. The reasoning is pretty straightforward, “I have a dream, life is not living up to it, what’s the point?”

This kind of burnout is common in a broken world and all too common in the church. I have known many over the years who started the christian journey strongly only to give out and give up midway up the mountain. Church sociologists and demographers suggest that this reality is all too common in the church. Again and again we find people who come to God for new life, and eventually run away, finding themselves in places similar to where they were before the faith journey began.

Surely, this issue must have been at play on some level as Joshua led his men up the mountain, as recorded in Joshua chapter 10. Here were a people who were being called by God to abandon a life of comfort and rest in pursuit of a bigger life, but one that meant challenge and hard work. Viewed as a mere religious obligation, I suggest, these men would not have lasted very long. Halfway through that 20 mile uphill trek they surely would have given up the ghost if rule keeping were the only thing motivating them. Further, there is little doubt that many of these men being led by Joshua failed along the way. Some fought with others in the camp. Many, I am sure, were distracted by the enormity of the challenge. Others were, assuredly, caged by their fear of what was to come. Still others, in all likelihood, chose self over team and struck out on their own along the way. Simply put, they failed to live up to the calling. In the end, however, these men scaled the hill, conquered the enemy, and by God’s grace and power, won the day despite their failings, their fallings.

What separates those that make it all the way from those who drop off at some point along the climb? I would suggest to you that a great lesson can be learned from Nacho and from these men climbing with Joshua. What Nacho eventually came to discover was that the entire view of his calling had to be changed. In one of those “Aha!” moments, Nacho found that it was not religious duty and rule keeping that he was called to live for, rather, it was a relationship with a Creator who calls us to embrace life with Him and then inspires us to live large lives. God’s call to humanity is not a call to mind-numbing blind obedience to a kill-joy divine tyrant. To the contrary, taking the hill, any hill God calls us to, is about our adventuresome pursuit of our relationship with a God who longs to give us a life worth living. He challenges us, inspires us and enables us to win the day in the context of His joyful love for us. He is to be viewed as a God smiling upon His people rather than a frowning angry father figure waiting to chasten us.

Any good coach knows that to get the best from an athlete you must make the training regimen tough. As the athlete grows in his or her ability the training actually grows tougher and tougher. Eventually all the work and preparation pays off with victory. The same is true of our faith walk. God brings us to challenges and hills of all sorts as part of the journey to ultimate victory which is a deeper knowledge of and love for Him.

We do not continue the climb because we love a religious system of rules. Neither did Joshua and his men continue on because they were constrained to obey a task-master. Rather, Joshua and his men were compelled by the reality that God was for them, amidst them, and actively involved in their lives and their fight. The motivation for us, for Joshua’s men, and for Nacho is the same. We stay in the game, and get back in the game when we fail, because life without God’s presence just does not make sense. We are bigger than ourselves when following God’s call. Apart from pursuing His quests for us, we live petty lives. There is no substitute for living the life God has prepared for us, no matter the challenges.

Along the way rocks will fall and we will take our hits. There will be wounds. Yet, running to the wilderness of isolation and selfish pursuits will never heal us. We must get up and get back in the mix. When Nacho came to realize that God was calling him to Himself and not to rule keeping, he found that he could wrestle his way back to big dreams. In fact, God gave Nacho his dream to wrestle in the end, and he used the “spoils of battle” to provide a bigger and better life for his orphans. Rather than viewing every setback as the death of a dream, we ought to remember the lesson of Nacho and of Abraham, Joseph, and many others. The rocks will fall and seek to knock us off course, and we at times will fall, yet, God’s big dreams for us remain. He never waivers from His goal to give us all a life worth living.

Just as Mt. Everest has never been scaled without enormous difficulty, no dream worth pursuing is attained without hard work. The dream for a family, a marriage, psychological healing, weight loss, freedom from addiction, … they all require a passion for the climb. Keep climbing. The view from the peak is worth the effort.

Lastly, keep the critical issue the critical issue. The climb is about a relationship and not a rule. We obey God’s instructions for us because we are convinced He has our best in mind. We do not obey His rules in order to earn His favor. Religion (rule adherence) is about changing or controlling behavior. Religion, while it may at times enable behavior modification, it cannot change the heart. An our climbing, our remaining on the climb with hopeful and inspired hearts, should be driven by our relationship with God. The basis of the relationship gives the resolve. God calls us to Himself. He does not call us to a dull, boring, legalistic, and mundane life. Overbearing rule enforcement divorced from a love of God leads to burnout and an abandonment of the adventure. As C.S. Lewis, a reluctant convert by his own admission, remarks, “I thought I was coming to a program…but what I found was that I was coming to a person.” On our own we cannot climb high enough on the moral ladder. God is perfect, and we never will be. The will to stay in the adventure comes from your getting off the religious ladder and taking the bridge across the gulf of sin in your heart to the person and work of God fulfilled on the cross.

The rocks will fall. You will fall. Get up, and run to the person of Jesus. He alone gives us the will to keep climbing. He alone secures the heights which await us.

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

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