Steve’s story | Desperation on an ice wall turns to prayer

 “I’ve always loved the mountains, since I was a boy. Back then, I was rubbish at football. If you can’t play football, as a boy, what are you good for? But I got into rock climbing and realised it was something I could do. I became quite obsessed by it, and have been climbing ever since, near my home in Scotland, and in the alps, and the Himalayas.  

There was a turning point in my early twenties. Before then, I would have said I was an atheist. I’d kind of experimented with faith as a younger teen and felt that God hadn’t turned up, in a sense. I was wondering what life was about, and where I was headed. 

Then, we were in Norway, climbing an ice wall. We’d been climbing all day. We got into a situation at the top of an ice climb. It was the last bit, the steepest bit. The light was going. I had both my ice axes in the ice above my head, and I just felt I hadn’t got any strength left. I’d felt like that before… and always before, I’d fallen off. But always before, I’d fallen off into a situation that was safe. I’d plopped onto the rope and protection. But in this situation, there was no protection. I looked down, and I thought, if I fall off here, that’s me, finished… and I’ll probably take my friend down with me as well.  

So, I was hanging there, thinking what to do. And I started praying. It wasn’t rational. I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I know, I’ll pray.’ I just found myself praying. And the prayer was a prayer of desperation, ‘God, if you’re there, get me out of this.’ As I hung there, I also thought, well, I haven’t got too much to lose here. If I’m praying, I need to trust. So, I remember I loosened one of my ice axes above my head, and as I swung it, I prayed, ‘God, please let this be a good one.’ 

It went into the ice first time… which was a surprise because the ice had been really brittle. Before that, I’d had to work really hard for every placement. And then I swung the second ice axe and I prayed again, ‘Oh God, please let this be a good one.’ And it went in first time! Over the next 2 minutes, I climbed with a strength that was not my own. It was amazing! I remember I flopped over the top of the ice wall, and I brought my friend up with me. I pulled him over with the rope and he said, “Steve! That was amazing. How on earth did you do that?”  

To be honest, I just laughed it off. But it was a profound experience for me. I didn’t become a Christian on the spot, but I started searching. Over the next few months, I started reading things, I started having conversations. I had a climbing buddy who was a Christian, and I remember quizzing her… which led to me reading the New Testament, especially the Gospels.  

I read Matthew’s Gospel, three or four times, straight through. At the end of it, I just found Jesus such a compelling person. When he speaks, he speaks with such wisdom. When he acts, he acts with such courage. I don’t believe you can read those accounts and be left cold by them. I thought, ‘This is who I want to follow!’  

About 6-7 months after the ice climb, I went along to a little church in the Yorkshire Dales that was open. There wasn’t a service or anything going on. I just sat inside, and I prayed – perhaps a little more rationally than the first time. I said, ‘Jesus, I want to follow you.’ 

In all the years since then, Jesus has never disappointed me. I think we sometimes tend to dumb down Jesus, or perhaps we’ve tamed him, or we’ve tamed the church… but Jesus calls us to an adventure of faith, with each other, as the worldwide church… and it’s an amazing wild, adventure.” 

Steve’s story is part of the Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed.  

Visit Koorong to purchase Naomi’s Faith Stories book, Every Moment, Everywhere: https://koorong.com/everymoment

Steve also wrote this book on ‘rewilding’ the church.