Back when I worked for Youth For Christ, we had the best chaplain ever. Bill Clark had been a missionary since WW2. He went home to be with the Lord a few years ago, but many of his words still echo in my mind.
Old Bill was a notorious prankster with a curmudgeonly sense of humor. In fact, “Curmudgeon” was one of his nicknames. It was in his honor that I took that name as my online persona. I think he’d have been proud.
“Save me a good seat in Heaven big guy; I miss you!”
In WW2, old Bill trained soldiers for the 10th Mountain Division. He used to claim that the genesis of the phrase “reaching the end of my rope” began there.
They would take the trainees to a tall cliff in the dead of night, blindfold them and have them repel down hundreds of feet to the safety of the ground below. However, the rope lacked several feet of making it all the way to the ground.
Can you imagine what it was like to put on a blindfold and slide down a rope off the side of a giant cliff? Then imagine their panic when they reached the “end of their rope”.
After a few seconds of terror, the instructor would tell them to “simply drop” the rest of the way. It required a tremendous amount of trust to simply let go and fall the last few feet. It was a lesson none of them would ever forget.
Have you reached the end of your rope?
Can you hear Jesus saying “Let go”?
Old Bill was a notorious prankster with a curmudgeonly sense of humor. In fact, “Curmudgeon” was one of his nicknames. It was in his honor that I took that name as my online persona. I think he’d have been proud.
“Save me a good seat in Heaven big guy; I miss you!”
In WW2, old Bill trained soldiers for the 10th Mountain Division. He used to claim that the genesis of the phrase “reaching the end of my rope” began there.
They would take the trainees to a tall cliff in the dead of night, blindfold them and have them repel down hundreds of feet to the safety of the ground below. However, the rope lacked several feet of making it all the way to the ground.
Can you imagine what it was like to put on a blindfold and slide down a rope off the side of a giant cliff? Then imagine their panic when they reached the “end of their rope”.
After a few seconds of terror, the instructor would tell them to “simply drop” the rest of the way. It required a tremendous amount of trust to simply let go and fall the last few feet. It was a lesson none of them would ever forget.
Have you reached the end of your rope?
Can you hear Jesus saying “Let go”?
