spiritual mountainS
Boulders on Your Dreams
By Julie Ferwerda
CBN.com –
Amputation or Death
Life changed instantly and dramatically for one man in the spring
of 2003. It was a day not unlike many others in his life that
Aron Ralston ventured into a canyon in southern Utah in search
of some good rock climbing. He didn’t tell anyone where
he was going, a decision he would soon regret.
Scrambling over an 800 pound boulder, it came loose and sent
him hurling down the canyon wall. Following him down, the boulder
came to rest on top of his hand, pinning him securely.
Over the next few days, Aron tried everything he could think
of to get his arm free, but to no avail. Having exhausted all
reasonable possibilities by the sixth day, things were becoming
hopeless. Panic was setting in. The choice had become narrow:
Either cut his arm off, or die.
Aron describes what happened next when he went forward with his
decision to live. Using his body as a lever, he snapped the bones
of his arm in half. “I bent my arm farther and farther,
and then finally, this cracking, splintering sound, kind of like
a cap gun, then POW! It echoed up and down the canyon. I knew
that I had broken my bone. And yes, it hurt. It hurt a lot.”
After the break, he began the process of cutting through his
tissue, leaving arteries until last when he could tie them off
with a tourniquet. He likened the pain of cutting through nerves
to that of submerging his entire arm in a vat of hot magma.
The outcome? To this day, Aron is alive and well, and still climbing
with the aid of prosthesis. His life was saved, and in many ways,
it is better than ever before. Faced with death, Aron says, “I
was transformed as I was in that canyon.” Undoubtedly, life
will never be the same. Every day is now a day that he is really
alive…fully living in the joy and understanding of what
he’s been saved from.
Boulders on Your Dreams
What are the “boulders” in your life? What are the
things that you have engaged in that have become a trap, keeping
you from really living out your God-given purpose and dreams?
Where have your secret thoughts taken you that, in the beginning
seemed harmless enough, but ended up jeopardizing any hope of
being found?
Worry? Fear? Lust? How about procrastination and laziness? Negative
thoughts? Pride? Uncontrolled anger? Lack of priorities? Maybe
you say, “I just don’t have enough time to figure
out my purpose or to chase after goals and dreams. I can barely
get by now.”
How much television do you watch in a given day? The average
American watches four hours of T.V. every day. I know, I know,
it’s relaxing. You need that time to unwind after a hectic
day. At four priceless hours a day, you could spend a whole lifetime
of opportunity watching someone else’s life—a life
that doesn’t even exist—and miss living your own.
That would be a real tragedy.
Whatever is holding you back, it’s time to make the break.
It’s time to cut yourself away. Yes, it’s going to
take a radical decision and drastic measures. But without it,
your opportunity to experience really living with passion and
adventure will surely die.
Will a decision to make a big change in your life hurt? Yes,
speaking from experience, quite a lot. At first. But know this:
making the decision to stay the way you are, pinned down by life-hindering
obstacles, will hurt a lot more and for a lot longer as you watch
your dreams fade away forever. That is, unless you decide to do
something about it now. Ralston made the decision and just went
forward with it. He understood that the pain was only temporary
compared to the long-term outcome. “The pain was just one
more thing I had to do, and it was, in some sense, a very beautiful
feeling too…it was liberation.” For Ralston, one drastic
decision was freedom. It was life.
I’ve had to be cut away from several boulders in my life.
Fear has been a very debilitating factor that I wasn’t even
aware of until recent years. I can’t begin to tell you all
of the opportunities I missed and mistakes I’ve made because
of being driven by it. Fear of failure, fear of being alone, fear
of pain, fear of the unknown, fear of consequences, fear of missing
out. Fear of the future, fear of the past coming back to haunt
me. Fear of trusting God with my future, fear of not. Fear of
what others will think, and fear of taking risks. The list goes
on.
I’ve also struggled with addictions and hidden sins. Food,
attention from men, rage, and lust are all battles that have waged
on, some pinning me down for years. In fact, at some time or another,
every obstacle I mentioned earlier has been a struggle for me.
But with much humility and gratitude, I can say that God has given
me the strength, little by little, to painfully cut myself away…and
to heal. I’ve been set free. I’ve had the opportunity
to go on to higher places in my life—places I’d only
dreamed about—because of sober-minded and radical decisions
to get myself free no matter what the cost. The peace and joy
have far outweighed the pain getting here!
Ashes of Joy
So now, you’ve been offered an opportunity. I encourage
you to go ahead and make your move. Whatever threatens to steal
your life away, it’s time to be ruthless. Destroy or be
destroyed. Whatever is holding you back from those things you
have only dreamed about, or from the purposes God dreams about
for you, it’s time to act. Ralston said, “I had to
make a decision to go forward, not knowing what was going to come.
And that was important, that I took action in that moment, overcoming
fear.” Ralston didn’t have time to wait. You and I
don’t have time to wait either. This life is passing fast.
Tomorrow may be too late. Twenty years will seem like next week.
Aristotle once said, "Count him braver who overcomes his
desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory
is over self.” I don’t know about you, but I’m
not going to sit back and let my dreams and purpose die. For the
short time that I remain on this earth, I’m going to live…and
live on purpose. Having made that decision some years ago, I can
join Ralston in his sentiments when he returned to the canyon
to sprinkle the ash remains of his cremated arm. “I sprinkled
some of the ashes up canyon…and I cried tears of absolute
joy that I was alive. Being able to complete that circle is a
beautiful part of that whole experience.”
As Aron moves forward in his life with renewed passion and gratitude,
he says that the drive to climb the next mountain sustains him.
Recently he climbed nearly 23,000 feet to the summit of Mt. Aconcagua
in Argentina, the highest peak in South America.
What about you? What new summits are you ready to climb? The
pain of breaking free from the old life will only be temporary
and little by little, you will begin to heal and to discover what
new adventure is waiting. As you sprinkle your ashes of the past
from up top, looking back at the old canyon where you could have
died, I guarantee that the view from up there will be more than
worth it!
Julie Ferwerda lives happily with her husband of four years,
Steve, in central Wyoming. For more information see www.JulieFerwerda.com.
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