Baz Gascoyne on gorge walking and following God

Baz Gascoyne

Over the last couple of months I have had the opportunity of being involved with, and speaking at, numerous men's weekend events. This is always a huge privilege and delight of mine; spending a weekend with a group of guys, talking about real issues, laughing, eating, drinking, crying and doing various activities - activities such as - Clay Pigeon Shooting, Archery, Gorge Walking, Tossing three Wellington boots into a bucket, (which I won to the disappointment of the Essex Boys!)

Of all the above activities though, the one that I loved the most and was the most apprehensive about, was gorge walking in Wales. I had never done it before, but I was certainly up for giving it a go.

So sixteen of us guys got into a mini bus and headed for the gorge. When we arrived and the instructors began to inform us what we were going to be doing, realisation hit home and the beginning of the butterflies, which I cannot remember having since I was at senior school before a 100 metre sprint race!

To be hearing that we would be swimming in the freezing water, jumping into plunge pools, climbing up narrow ledges alongside fast flowing water, jumping across boulders, crawling behind waterfalls sounded exciting and scary all at the same time for me! Also, for those who wanted to, we could climb inside tight small holes in the pitch dark. I could sense the fear creeping in, as well as the buzz of excitement all wrapped up in a bundle of adrenaline. I thought if I am going to enjoy myself I need to throw myself into this literally!

'Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared' Eddie Rickenbacker.

As we began walking up stream in the water there was an air of excitement tinged with some apprehension, but once we began having a competition between two teams and had to swim and get fully emerged into what we doing the excitement took over. The whole experience was unbelievable. I must admit to you I could not do the small holes as I suffer from claustrophobia. For me the one thing which really caused me to be fearful was where you had to crawl along a narrow ledge behind a waterfall. Initially you can see where you are going as you follow someone else but then the water is so powerful that you lose visibility. This is where I really felt fear kick in and wanted to go back but I couldn't due to having someone following me alongside the ledge. I could no longer see the person in front of me due to the amount of water cascading down. I knew I had to just keep as close to the side of the waterfall as I could and keep crawling. Eventually I got to the other end feeling relieved and excited as I could stand up and prepare myself for a massive leap into the gorge. The feeling of leaping out into the water was fantastic after experiencing being overcome by fear. The freedom I felt was amazing.

We finished our gorge walking experience by doing the 'Loonies Leap' - an 18ft leap into the water. This was such an exhilarating way to end our time at the gorge. I enjoyed it so much I did it twice.

This was an experience I will never forget. I had such a great time with the guys from Cornerstone Church in Swansea and to be honest would love to go again sometime.

So, attempting new things takes courage; but so does being totally honest with where things are at in your life. 2012 will bring so many opportunities and possibilities for you but what you do with them will depend on whether you have the bottle to 'man up' and face things head on with a 'Full on Attitude'.

'Courage is never letting your actions be influenced by your fears' Arthur Koestler

For some of you it could well be the year you say to yourself, 'This year is the year I am going to seek help with my anger issues'; or maybe it's the year to decide to go back to college and be retrained, or even look for a new job in this economic climate. For others it could well be the year where you say to God, 'I need to discover what you are really about. I want to discover for myself what it means to be loved by you and to become a follower of you'.

All the above will take courage but like Vincent Van Gough said:

'What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?'

I am so glad I did not let my fears rob me of that great experience gorge walking in Wales. Please do not let your fear rob you in 2012 of discovering all that God has for you this year and the years to come.