Trust the Slope

(December 26, 2013)

On Christmas Eve, I enjoyed the privilege of going skiing with one of my good friends, David Wallisch. We went to one of the smaller, lesser known ski resorts in Colorado. I like going there because it isn't as big. It's a shorter drive than most, the lines are usually really fast, and I am still challenged by the slopes.

As the day carried on, I was trying to implement some instruction that I had received from my brother a few weeks prior. I had been bending my back a lot as I came down the slopes, which was not only starting to take its toll and make my back sore, but it was also affecting my performance and my ability to stay balanced. My brother instructed me to bend more in my knees like I was squatting, saying that it would give me more control and it wouldn't be so tough on my already bad back.
Now, on this particular day, I was falling...more than usual. I am not what you might call an "expert" but I can hold my own on the mountain. I was taking spills in some spots that I just really shouldn't have. I was talking to David on the lift and he started explaining an approach that intrigued me. He was saying that you have to let the mountain take you where it will; allow yourself to give up control. You might have times when you lose your balance, but when you allow those to happen, you learn how to correct them without panicking. Whereas, if you are constantly trying to stay in control, the moment you lose it, you're not really sure what to do. That's when you end up taking a hard fall. I responded by telling him what I observed about my technique after hearing this new knowledge. I had been overcompensating in my squat, and more importantly, I was so rigid in making my turns and keeping a speed that I was comfortable with, that I would be going sideways for such a long time causing a rough ride down the mountain. As a result, I was catching edges right and left - literally - and playing a lot of catch up after recovering from those falls.

What did I do with this new instruction? I followed it. I had my best runs of the day...on the mountain that is :)

But what was the deeper lesson in it all? I couldn't believe the parallels between my technique in skiing and my approach to life. Anybody who knows me well enough knows that I take my sweet time making decisions. I don't tend to move forward until I am all but 100% certain that that will be the correct step. I want control. I want to be sure-footed. What happens is when I get so used to having the control, whenever anything goes wrong, I panic and I don't keep moving forward. By the way, I usually do a pretty good job of keeping a calm demeanor, but there is an honest uneasiness when life doesn't go the way I thought it would. What would happen if I surrendered that control to God and let Him take me where He means to? Obviously, there are still elements that I have to continue to act on; I can't just straight-line down a mountain and not expect to hit a tree, another skier/snowboarder, or just flat out crash. I want to learn that balance of acting with God rather than trying to keep all of the control for myself.

My closing thought is this: What if the greatest things I can accomplish in this life are simply waiting for the day that I submit the control of my small, narrow-minded goals to the greater plans that God has in store for me?