After the Victory

I took my new hearing aids skiing. Since I have a month trial period in which to determine if the difference in hearing is good enough to justify the expense, my hearing aids and I will be together every moment. On the car ride to the mountain, I listened to a Christian radio station, 2 1/2 hours of nonstop sermons. I heard every word! I was so thrilled with how much better clarity the hearing aids seemed to be giving. One sermon strongly convicted me. The pastor spoke of how we are often in prayer before a major trial...but often not afterwards in the face of victory. That is when Satan often steps up his attack, because victory can so often feed into arrogance and pride. And pride is the common denominator in sliding into sin and falling. I pray mightily before my stints at the abortion mill as a sidewalk counselor, but not nearly so ardently afterwards. Invariably, there is strife and struggle after my counseling day at the mill. Take heed: Pride goeth before a fall!

When I reached the ski mountain, I was eager to see how the hearing aids worked in the cold, under a helmet. They were completely comfortable under my helmet, which surprised me. I hopped on the chair lift, and understood every word the assistant there said: "Man! I am cold!"
"Didn't your mother teach you to wear mittens?" I asked the bare handed lift operator.
"Yes," he said woefully.
Lesson: Listen to mothers.
I didn't say that to him however.

As I moved peacefully to the mountain top, I discovered a new advantage to my hearing aids. I could eavesdrop on the conversation of the folks in the chairlift in front of me! To my disappointment, no one was saying, "Hey check out the cute skier behind us!"

But, I forgot about my hearing aids as I skied down the mountain. Despite 50 degree wind gusts now and then, the snow was perfect. I went on the trail I rarely go on since I am not a great skier and that trail is the hardest intermediate trail. Even on that trail, I felt in complete control. It was one of those rare days when everything clicked and I felt like the skis were a part of me. I realized about halfway down the mountain that I was doing something right. It was effortless!

As soon as I started to realize I was doing something right...it went all wrong. I was feeling pretty smug about what a dapper figure I was cutting swooshing so skillfully down the mountain. I glanced at the chairlift, hoping my daughter was passing by, watching my perfection. And then, I analyzed why it was all going so well. I think I have shifted my weight forward and my knees are "soft", absorbing the terrain's bumps and valleys. Suddenly, I couldn't shift my weight properly if my life depended on it...which oh yeah...it did....and I began to windmill my arms and go back to my I-am-a-terrible-skier-technique which includes erratic wild swings back and forth across the mountain.

And because my hearing aids were working famously, I could hear the people behind me swearing at the incompetent on the slopes. Oh my, pride goeth before a fall!

Now in complete fairness, this episode lasted only briefly. I was immediately humbled, and decided I needed to stop thinking so much about my success, or how I had arrived at it, and just praise God and revel in it. The mountain and I were one again.

********************
Proverbs 16: 18-20
18 Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor
than to divide the spoil with the proud.
20 Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.