Cliff-People

I want to talk about cliffs.

Two great hikes for your upcoming summer are "Angels Landing" and "The Narrows" at Zion National Park. The Narrows is a long slot canyon. It's a blast to explore, and run through the shallow water and climb little waterfalls. Angels Landing is essentially the spacial opposite of The Narrows. It is a thin slice of rock with straight drops of more than 1000 ft. on either side. If you're in the area and you've never been to this area, I recommend you plan a trip. 

                                                                                       

                   

Much of the wonder of these formations is how they came to be. The steady beating of the elements, and the slow, relentless reshaping of the earth... It's amazing.

Last summer some friends and I were leaving the canyon after an awesome day of hiking. We were laughing and chatting, and reflecting on that kind of majestic feeling you have when you experience nature. I was scanning the cliffs when something piqued my interest. I noticed that most of the formations/landscapes had relatively flat tops, and they were covered in trees. I was pretty impressed considering the very small amount of top soil on these rock formations...

But I noticed something else, too. This is the important part. I saw that there were a few trees that had grown on the tiny edges and juts on the side of the rock, sometimes more than one hundred feet down the side of the cliff. 

(Look closely)

                                                             
That's even more impressive. How crazy it is that a little seed fell there, somehow, then got stuck, and then amazingly found enough nutrients to grow into a 30 ft. tree on that little, tiny edge!

You know, I feel a sort of love for those trees...
I feel compassion for them!
I feel proud of them!
I feel inspired by them!

There are people in this life that grow on flat ground, and there are people that grow on the sides of cliffs. I would consider myself a flat ground man. I have friends that are cliff-people. They are people who have experienced very difficult things, and they don't give up. Each of us probably knows someone experiencing something that is hard to deal with or hard to understand, or we ourselves are that person. Some of these hardships have been with us for years and will continue for years to come. And for some people, it just seems to be their lot to have a very, very hard life.

I love these cliff people.
I feel compassion for them.
I feel proud of them.
I feel inspired by them.

They prove that people are resilient.
They prove that we do indeed have the choice to succeed.
Though they are alone, they grow.
Though they live on steep, rocky slopes, they grow.
Though they face the full force of the canyon winds, they grow.
What beautiful, incredible people.

Douglas Malloch wrote the following:

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

There is a popular notion that we are victims of and subject to circumstance. We are not. I understand that some circumstances are incredibly demanding, but we are more than they are. I know that some things are nearly impossible to accomplish, but people have done those things, too. I believe in the capacity of people, especially combined with capacity of God, to do incredibly difficult things, to do them well, and to be made great by them.