Our Chaplain & Welfare Manager, Paul Johnson, known affectionately at the Club as 'Chappers', has written an Easter message for all Saints supporters.
Have you ever felt like you are hanging on for dear life?!
I know that I am a little bit late to the party, but I watched the 2018 film, ‘Free Solo’, on the journey to Catalans a few weeks ago. It’s an incredible documentary about Alex Honnold, who is a free climber. Free climbers scale rock faces, amongst other tall things (!), without the aid of ropes. The film tells the story of Alex’s mission to be the first person to climb the 900-metre-tall El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, as a free climb.
Watching Alex Honnold practising the climb, with numerous setbacks along the way, is enough to make me feel like I never want to do a climb again! There’s a point in his preparations where his partner makes a mistake with a rope, allowing him to fall and suffer some compression fractures on some of his vertebrae. I imagine that most people would have given up, but his levels of determination are incredible
The day of the climb comes. He wakes up and decides, today is the day! Watching him scramble up the, virtually vertical, wall is something spectacular to behold. Onlookers, all of whom are seasoned climbers themselves, are stunned by the way that he ascends the monolith with speed, agility and skill. He achieves the climb in 3 hours, 56 minutes. Years of preparation, with fears, injuries and disappointments along the way, have all brought him to this moment. There have literally been times when he is holding his entire body weight with his fingertips on a small outcrop from the wall. As he completes the climb, his face displays a mixture of celebration, relief and fulfilment. It’s almost as if the challenges and fingertip grips made it all the more incredible and worthy of celebrating.
What Alex experienced in a very literal way, many of us feel in a more figurative way, at different times in our lives. Challenges come along and can leave us feeling like the easiest thing in the world would be to give up. We can feel like we are holding on with our fingertips. When Alex was experiencing his most challenging feelings, there was always someone there who reminded him why he was doing it, encouraging him and cheering him on. Do we have those people in our lives, who will do that for us. Are you someone who does that for other people?
There’s a moment in the Easter Story, just before Jesus is arrested, when it feels like He is hanging on. He knows the pain that will come His way within the next few hours, and He asks His Father whether there is a different way. Having prayed and sweat drops of blood because of the anxiety and stress, He decides that the pain is worth it. He can see the victory ahead – opening the way for people to have a relationship with God. He follows through with the challenge of Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Easter Sunday comes and the victory is complete. He has scaled His ‘El Capitane’ and the amazing power of the Easter Story is realised.
There will, most likely, be times during Friday’s game when the challenge is there and the battle is real. When we feel like we are giving everything that we’ve got. I can assure you that the players and staff have put in the work and the preparation and now it’s time to ‘scale the wall!’
My encouragement to you, this Easter time, is to hold on. When the challenges come, allow your family and friends to encourage you. When you see others facing challenges, bring the encouragement that they need. Know that Jesus understands what it feels like to face incredible battles; you are not on your own. Know that the victory is worth the battle. Keep going!
