Unlike skydiving, climbing Mt. Sinai is not something I ever
have to do again. This was sort of my
last chance, so I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to complete
it! And what a workout it was. I do kettlebells twice a week and swim twice
a week. I thought I was in decent, or at
least acceptable, shape. And maybe I am,
for a middle-aged, urban African-American woman. For a citizen of the world, however, I may
not be in the best of shape. People
come from all over the world to climb Mt. Sinai, with the vast majority of them
going up in the middle of the night, watching the sun rise, and coming down
early in the morning. We left about 9:30
in the morning. While the rest of the
group reached the top waaay before I did, I got up there about 1:30. It was like doing the stairmaster on level 10
for four hours. Early on, I realized I
couldn’t keep pace with the group. I do need to thank them: Peter, Kristen, Hoyt and Mary Margaret, and
Ruth and Richard. Without them, it’s
unlikely I would have made it. Sometimes
the Grace of God, along with properly positioned people, can help you get to
places you couldn’t get to alone. But
they were all way in front of me. While
they seemed reluctant to leave me, I didn’t want them always having to wait
around for me. I seem to work better at
short intervals, not at a sustained strenuous workout. Which is fine, if you have the option. But if you’re on a 45 degree incline (oh, and
did I mention you start at 5,000 feet above sea level and climb for another
3,000 feet) – if you’re on a 45 degree incline, you can’t change the incline,
so you have to take rests more often.
At least that’s what I did.
By the time I passed Elijah’s Basin, I was pretty much whipped. But my cellphone signal went out and I had no
way of reaching the group leader to tell him I couldn’t feel my legs, so I had
to keep going. Past Elijah’s Basin is
where the 752 steps begin, and where we had to stop last year. Of course, I’m without my group and have no
idea where I’m going. The steps aren’t
really steps like we know them, they’re just rocks piled on top of each
other. So one group of rocks piled on
top of another looked like another group, and before you knew it, I was rock
climbing instead of walking the steps.
Fortunately, one of the Bedouin guys saw me and steered me in the right
direction.
As I went up, I was thinking there’s probably a sermon
and/or a teachable moment in the fact that when we’re trying to make some sort
of spiritual ascent or spiritual growth, that the situation may be more
difficult than we think we can handle.
The song “rough side of the mountain” certainly came into my mind on
more than one occasion. At one point,
when I thought I couldn’t make it any more, I pulled out my iPhone and started
with my workout playlist. That had just
a little more funk in it than I wanted to hear going up the side of Mt. Sinai
(not because of any false piety, misplaced reverence, or anything like that – without my group with
me, the Mountain is an incredibly beautiful, majestic, and fairly solitary
place. Funk just didn’t fit right then,
for me.) – that had a little more funk in it than I wanted to hear right then,
so since it was Sunday and this was my act of worship, I put on my Sunday
morning mix. Brooklyn Tabernacle’s “I
never lost my praise” encouraged me. I
tried singing along with it, but my body realized I was at way over 5,000 feet
and climbing a mountain, so it didn’t really cooperated. I then tried to dance with it, but the same
thing happened. So I held it in my head
for a minute, and then began to praise God as I climbed the side of the
mountain.
Of course, by the time I reached the steps, I was a
mess. I had claimed the ascent in my
head, but my body just wasn’t cooperating.
It was like you’d climb a set of steps, thinking this had to be it,
because you couldn’t see anything above you but sky, and then at the top they’d
switch back to another set of steps. I
found myself going “please, God, let this end,” and I realized that sometimes
it’s stupid to pray prayers like that.
After all, if I’d lost my balance and fallen off the mountain right
then, the ordeal would have ended, but
so would my life. Sometimes, you don’t
need to pray for a specific outcome. You
need to pray for strength to do God’s will, or strength to act or behave in such
a way that God will be glorified. Then
you need to make your best effort, and leave the results to God.
That’s what I did today, and that’s one of the things I’m
learning on this pilgrimage. Cuz let’s
face it : I’m an American. In the overall scheme of things, my life has
been pretty good. That’s why this sort
of strenuous physical activity is so taxing on my body – I’m not really
accustomed to it. And the way I react when
things don’t go my way is that I usually get annoyed or upset or I just tune
out. I didn’t really have that option
today. That mountain was KICKING MY
BEHIND, and my only option was to continue climbing. Even if I had chosen to quit, I STILL HAD TO
CLIMB DOWN THE MOUNTAIN! So there was a
good lesson for me.
The view from the top of the mountain was fairly
anticlimactic. There’s a church there
(we couldn’t, or didn’t go in), and there’s a view of over into Saudi Arabia,
and up into Egypt. And there’s the feeling
that you’ve done something that is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I say
anticlimactic; on the tape I said “boring.”
It’s actually neither, it’s just a whole lot of mountains, which you’ve
just spent four hours looking at. It’s
not the view, it’s the experience. Like
we said about this whole pilgrimage thing, it’s not the external stuff, it’s
the internal, the relational stuff, that’s transformative.
If coming up was challenging, coming down was even more
so. Thankfully I’ve been working the
quads; otherwise I probably wouldn’t have made it. I had to come down very slowly, and very
carefully, leaning on the cane. Which
makes me realize that we have to be careful what we lean on or use for
support. If I had tried to lean on a
cane that was placed on slipping sand, or on an uneven rock, that would have
been a disaster. And even though I’d
done all this work getting up the mountain, and even though I could be happy
and grateful at this once in a lifetime achievement that was a gift from God,
guess what? To make it off the
mountaintop, to get back to life as I knew it, I still had to face the same
pitch of the mountain, still had to face the same slippery sand, and rocks in
the road, and still had to avoid the same (or new) camel dung on the road. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been to in
life, or even where you’re going – to get from here to there, you have to keep
your eyes on the prize, yes – but you also have to keep your eyes on the Road,
or the Way that you are traveling.
We always stop at what I call the CamelStop Tea House. When climbing up the mountain, it’s the last
stop that the camels make, and is the last tea house before you start the
steps. My friend Dale W. told me about
it on his first trip to Egypt, so when I went, I had a cup of tea there. He went back on his second trip, and I’ve now
gone back on my second trip. I talked to
the guy, Soleman, in the tea house. He
says he remembers Dale. But what’s
really cool about this Bedouin guy who has a tea house (pretty much a lean to
with a wood fire inside and some blankets on benches) – is that he has a
facebook account. As soon as I get
proper internet access, I’m going to friend him. He friends lots of people, and is slowly but
surely growing his business that way, I believe. He’s a very nice and hospitable guy, whose tea
really is remarkable; the whole thing of a Bedouin who lives on Mt. Sinai and
has a Facebook account is not only practical, but catchy enough that people
will remember him.
Anyway, it’s now dinnertime.
Gotta go meet my group.
I forgot to say that I got all the clothes I’ve worn since
I’ve been here, all washed and folded for under $10.00. It’s 9:30 now. Usually I shower in the morning, but I’ve had
a nice hot shower and have put that ben-gay like stuff on me. Turning in now; we rise at 5 am to eat
breakfast, leave by 6, and head into Israel.
Time permitting, the group will go to Masada (I’ve been twice; I think
I’ll pass), and possibly to the Dead Sea and/or Qumran. Then we’re on into Bethlehem for the next 2
or 3 days, then to Petra, then back to Amman, and back to the US. We’re only halfway done, and I’m having a
ball!
I give God thanks for an amazing day!!!
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