The Urge to Climb

The Urge to Climb
The answers we’re looking for aren’t one step higher 

Have you ever done any minaret climbing? 

Last week, I found myself in Cairo. I mean, I didn’t just randomly wake up there, we booked plane tickets and flew there to explore a few projects and capture some stories for The Stone Table. 

On a walk through the Khan el-Khalili market, we stopped at the Bab Zuweila, an 11th century gate that boasts two minarets—tall, rounded, slender towers attached to a mosque—that overlook the medieval marketplace. We couldn’t resist the urge to climb. 

The Climbing Instinct 

The staircase is narrow and cramped, so we formed a line and began the ascent. The stairs follow the outside wall of the rounded tower like a spiral. No OSHA regulations in medieval Cairo, so each step is a different height. Once you get a climb rhythm, the next step might be just a little bit taller causing you to catch your toe and stumble.  

And to compound it all…it’s really, really dark.  

My instinct was to grab my iPhone and turn on the flashlight, but I needed both hands to brace myself on the walls, and often to catch myself as I tripped on the odd-sized step in front of me. 

That’s when it hit me—this is how most of us are living our lives.  

There is obvious distance between God “up there” and us “down here.” Even for those who ignore God, there’s a gap between who they are and who they know they should be. 

And so we climb.  

Something Radically Different 

Pick a religion, or really any human system. Hinduism, Islam, Mormonism, even legalistic expressions of Christianity. Or the secular options—achievement, productivity, personal branding, social media, hustle culture. 

We have to improve, we have to achieve, we have to ascend. And the climb is hard. It’s dark, the steps aren’t uniform, we trip, we struggle to catch our breath. But here’s the Good News we often miss: 

While our instincts say climb higher, Jesus climbed down.  

I love how Eugene Peterson paraphrases Matthew 11:28-30 in the Message: 

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” 

Do you ever feel like you’re climbing up a long stairway in the dark? Chasing the next promotion, trying to be the perfect parent, leader, spouse, Christian, provider? The world tells us that the fix for that gap in our souls is found one more level up.  

Work harder. Optimize more. Build your platform. Become “enough.” 

But Jesus offers something radically different. He doesn’t hand us a flashlight and tell us to keep climbing. He climbs down to us. 

The Gospel frees us from earning and invites us to participate in God’s work in the world. Our work still matters deeply, but not because our performance earns God’s affection. It simply becomes the outflow of His finished work in our lives. 

Let’s stop climbing to become somebody. In Christ, your identity is already settled. Let’s go love our neighbors, make Jesus known, and enjoy the freedom of walking with the God who came down instead of exhausting ourselves trying to climb our way up to Him.