Parable of the Rock Scrambler

The year was 1999. Andrew and I were not yet engaged, and we were on an H.F. (Holiday Fellowship) walking holiday in Malhamdale, Yorkshire. For those of you who are familiar with that part of the Dales, i am sure you will get the picture.
Our walk for that day (we were doing the highest level walk) involved scrambling the Waterfall Gordale Scar. Luckily, the water was only falling down fairly lightly, but even so, it was a challenge, and when it came to my turn, panic gripped me! I asked Geoff, our qualified leader if there was an easier way of ascending, and was told no, he was sorry but there wasn't. Still, I gritted my teeth and did it. Andrew was in the lead, and he kept guiding me and saying "put your foot in there!" "Keep going" etc, as I hung on to dear life, not daring to look around, in case i lost my grip and fell.(It was limestone, so it was extremely slippery!) Our mutual friend, Roy from Manchester was just below us, so i had the reassurance that he would catch us if we fell!
To cut a long story short, we finally got to the top, and the first thing that Geoff said, was "Well Done. You 've made it!" and he then declared that it was time for our first tea break!
As a Christian, I see the message in this story as follows. As we go through our journey of life, following Jesus, we meet many obstacles along our way, and have to face many dangerous situations. Roy, Andrew and myself are ourselves dealing with the situations, and Geoff the leader represents our Lord. We know that God does not promise us an "easy" way once we accept him in our lives, but that he is there to guide us through the dangerous situations and to stop us from falling into temptation. He also sends us other people to guide us through these situations. when we reach the goal, the Lord says "Well Done! You've made it!" and he tells us, "Let us Celebrate" so we have a party! (our tea break).
One of my favourite Traditional hymns is all about what i mention here. i will not quote it word for word, as I do not want to risk breaching copyright laws. The hymn is "Father Hear the Prayer we Offer" Here, we ask our heavenly father that we should not ask for an easy life, but that we should have courage and strength to face all the dangers and challenges that life throws at us, and that we should rejoice in treading the steep and rugged pathways. The hymn ends up with us asking him to be at our sides at all times as we deal with with worrying and dangerous situations!