Player Intro
Nathan Baker is a professional tree climber, arborist, and rock climbing guide. He is driven by adrenaline, and the powerful feeling of overcoming fear when climbing. His foremost identity, however, is as a Christian working to further the kingdom of God. Nathan shares his story of how a potentially destructive habit of seeking adrenaline has been redirected for doing God's work.
Nathan has opened up his own business (Blue Oak Affordable Tree Solutions) providing tree solutions in the Asheville, NC area. Please check out some of his work and consider him for any upcoming tree work.
Player Development has made every effort to keep Nathan's original wording and narrative, though some edits have been made for clarity and organization. His full interview audio file is available here.
Gameplan
pD: Tell me about your story and relationship with climbing and other sports.
Nathan: My whole identity very much revolves around the kingdom of God; this is so at the fabric of my being that I can't even talk about anything else without having the kingdom of God come up intermittently.
I'll start by saying I've always been athletic, always been driven to do things. Ever since I was a little kid, my parents got me involved in sports like softball, volleyball, and I even played wallyball.
So I got into adrenaline-type sports as I got older, partially because of emotional instability. I was very unhappy in life, so I tried to fill that gap with adrenaline. So I got into boxing, and I got into motorcycle riding, reckless speeding, and I started tree climbing at this time. This was important because it would pave the way for my climbing later on. I got into free climbing with no rope, and I would go up three hundred feet up a water tower or a radio tower, completely unstrapped, climbing on the outside of it, just for the adrenaline of it.
I wanted to have boxing be my career, to be a professional boxer. I had a coach who thought I had the skillset to go that far, but it never took off, he never got me any amateur fights. I got my amateur certificate as a boxer, but I never got any fights.
I joined the Army; I thought that would get me my adrenaline fix, but it did not. So I did end up getting married; I calmed down a little bit, and then my wife at the time left me, which sent me right back into that adrenaline craze. I got into downhill mountain biking. I was on the amateur level, taking my bike across twelve-foot gap jumps and off ten-foot drop offs, hitting tabletop jumps and endo jumps. I loved it.
I ended up having this major conversion to Christ through my divorce. It really humbled me, and I started seeking the kingdom a lot more, so I started giving up everything that wasn't for the kingdom. I sold my motorcycle, I sold my trail bike, gave away my Xbox, my TV, anything that wasn't productive for the kingdom.
But I held onto my downhill bike because I was so passionate about downhill biking. I wanted to get into racing. I was so passionate about it that I got a BMX bike just so that I could try to learn better technique in jumping and doing tricks. I was practicing backflips at one point at an indoor BMX park.
One day, I had a horrible accident, so bad; I went off a big jump and apparently overshot the landing. The people who were watching said I fell 30 feet, and I broke 7 bones, a fracture in my back, 3 fractured ribs, 2 fractures in my wrist, and a broken clavicle, and the rest of my body was really torn up. I was knocked completely unconscious. I woke up to the park manager, a team dragging me up the hill, and he was saying "This needs a helicopter."
It was such an interesting experience because I started thinking about how much attention and money was being spent on me in the middle of all this. I remember them injecting me with morphine, which didn't take away any of the pain.
I told the helicopter pilot, "I want you to know that maybe this is happening because maybe you need to know that Jesus loves you." Even in the middle of all this, I'm trying to use this to glorify God; even the shirt they cut off me had a gospel message on it. I witnessed to people during the downtime when we were taking the lift up to the top of the hill.
I was trying to justify my obsession with downhill mountain biking by saying I'm a radical Christian who had forsaken everything and I can hang onto this as well; "I'm using this for the kingdom," is what I was trying to say. When this accident happened, I realized that thousands of dollars were being spent on me for a hobby, essentially. There's people in the world that are dying of starvation, these resources could be helping people in need, and as a Christian, that's what I should be advocating for, and yet all of this is being spent on me because I'm just having fun. And that's just not the cross of Christ I'm called to bear.
I was trying to justify my obsession
At the time, I was very involved in homeless ministry, and was fascinated with the persecuted church in Pakistan. I was talking on Facebook with Christians in Pakistan, in India, and getting ready to go on a trip to Uganda and India. I had done a lot of missions work, yet I'm choosing to ignore all of it and mountain bike.
At that point, I just felt unjustified as a Christian to keep this hobby. I knew I wasn't good enough to be a sponsored racer and make it a career, which maybe would have been different. I prayed, "Lord, I don't wanna give it up, but I'm gonna post my downhill bike for sale. I'll be totally open to the potential that you will bring it back into my life." So my two thoughts were: Maybe nobody will buy the bike, and God will answer me that way.
That was God's answer
I didn't think the bike would sell: I posted it for $1,000, it didn't have a chain, didn't have a derailleur, and this was in Fayetteville, where the closest downhill park was 4 or 5 hours away. So there wasn't a downhill mountain biking scene there, and I didn't think anyone would be interested. But that thing sold overnight; they didn't even try to talk me down. I even put on the post "Don't ask me to reduce the price; I don't wanna give this bike up, I'm doing it as obedience to the Lord." I literally said this in my Craigslist post, and they gave me a thousand dollars cash right there. That was God's answer to me.
I recovered extremely fast; the doctors were surprised at how quickly I recovered. I think the whole accident was a work of God; it was my blinding light experience, like what Paul had on the way to Damascus, when he was off doing his own thing, and God made him go blind so that he would be humbled and would focus on what God wanted him to focus on.
Honestly, I thought the jump I got injured on was within my skillset; I had made jumps like that before, and I did not go off of it too fast. They said I overshot the landing, which meant I went way too fast, but I don't know how that was possible because I didn't have a chain, I couldn't pedal, so I was just coasting down the trail, and I pumped the brakes right before going off the ramp. I felt like I could have a nice, smooth landing. I remember landing, and I remember people watching and cheering as I went off of it, and that's all I remember, landing, and that was it.
I should have died
They said I overshot my landing by a ton and that I somehow did this and fell thirty feet total in the air. So the shock when I hit wasn't absorbed by my suspension, and I got bucked off and went head first into a mound of dirt or something. It knocked me unconscious, but what was weird was that it broke everything around my neck without breaking my neck. It was really bad, and I was not wearing a neck brace, and yet I didn't snap my neck. So I feel like this accident brought me within an inch of my life, and I should have died. The circumstances, I feel, made this a humbling experience.
So after this accident, I gave up downhill biking, and it was a little depressing at first, but I had faith that God would see this sacrifice and restore my joy in his kingdom some other way. I went on another missionary trip to three different third world countries, and I didn't know if I was going to live through that. I was meeting people in India for the very first time that I had coordinated with on Facebook; I didn't know what was going to happen.
I came back from the mission trip, and everything went fine there. I returned and started going to school, and that's where I got into rock climbing. My school had a rock climbing wall in the gym, and I really took to it. When I was in the Army, I fiddled with it, and it was really difficult when I first tried until I developed some strength and technique. I guess I got frustrated with it before and gave up on it.
I still wanted that adrenaline
So I tried it again; I was still hoping that God would still open a door for me to do downhill biking again. I wanted that adrenaline still, but this time around, something clicked, and I loved rock climbing. It brought me back to that feeling as a kid when I would climb trees, and even as a teenager when I was going through those dark times and I was doing free climbing three hundred feet up. I was brought back to my love of that climbing and that feeling of overcoming fear.
It was different from mountain biking because biking is very fast paced, with little time to react. You don't have time to think about it. Rock climbing is very different because it can be a fast pace if you want it to be, but, as a whole, is at a much more controlled pace. You are in total control of your every move, limited only by the endurance of your muscles. If you find ways to rest along the way, you can pace yourself and be methodical, and think things through. The fear of it is still there; it's very real.
When you're climbing in the gym, you're coming off the ground, thinking if the rope is gonna hold you, if your partner's going to catch you. Then when you go outdoors, you have new fears at first. You push into more aggressive styles of climbing, like lead climbing, where you have a potential to fall twenty feet between bolts. So if you fall, you fall however far your last clip was. That's a lot scarier, and then you get more advanced, which is trad, which is where you're placing your own cam and nuts, and you're jamming things into cracks and wedging protection, building your protection into the cracks of the rock and clipping to that. Now you add the factor of second-guessing the protection you've built, which is so much more intense.
There are sections that are run out, which means there's no place to put protection, so your last bolt is twenty feet below you, so if you fall, you fall forty feet. And being able to do those balance moves and rely completely on a tiny piece of rock under your toe or under your fingertips, and if you slip, you're going to fall twenty to thirty feet. That's terrifying, and hopefully your cam is going to catch you. At the same time, you're in control of the pace. I got into multi-pitch, which is where you're climbing big cliffs, three hundred, five hundred, twelve hundred feet tall. My wife and I went to EPC in Mexico, and we did a 12 pitch climb, about one thousand feet of total climbing on these limestone cliffs.
There's so much potential in the world of climbing that I loved it so much, I was worried that I was going to repeat the same obsession with an adrenaline sport that I did with mountain biking. I started praying for the Lord to take away the love of climbing, because I didn't want to love climbing more than God.
I don't want to love climbing more than God
This felt different because I could actually turn this into a career. I became a climbing guide, and it could be used more easily for social interaction and ministry. There was no way I could get into a real conversation with downhill mountain biking, which is a very individual sport. But rock climbing is completely a team sport, relying on a partner. I've used rock climbing a ton for ministry, taking people who wouldn't have been able to otherwise, sharing our love for nature with kids and adults, even with homeless people if they want to go. Mountain biking, there's just no way to do that; it's not as inviting for beginners.
So the logistics of climbing warrant it to be used for ministry and fellowship. Furthermore, I did turn it into a career, so it's not just a hobby, but now is a lifestyle. This really led me back to tree climbing as a profession. I started climbing again, and having rock climbed for about a year or two, doing lead climbing and multi-pitch and stuff, I felt more in control as a tree worker.
The rock climbing has taken that fear completely out of me, so when I'm in a tree doing difficult work and rigging, when the tree is spindly and swaying back and forth, I'm way more comfortable than I've ever felt before. Sometimes you have to do a forty foot limb walk, where if you slip and fall, you're going for a big swing off the top of the tree.
I absolutely love tree work now, and I've gotten good enough that I've been able to start my own business as a climber. So climbing has become a way of life for me, and because I'm so thankful for the ability to climb, I continue to give God glory and a lot of the income that I make from my career in climbing. Any climbing income profit, I put a large chunk aside for ministry, so I can always remember that i have these careers and this ability and passion is ultimately for his kingdom.
I continue to give God glory
I didn't know if I'd ever be able to climb after that accident, or even walk. There's still a part of my bone that sticks out, but the climbing was therapeutic and helped me recover fully. I hadn't been able to do pull ups or push ups for a year, and I started climbing, and it was like therapy for me. I am stronger now than I've ever been.
pD: You talked about, as a teenager, you felt an emotional gap that you were filling with adrenaline-fueled sports. How have you made your peace with that emotional gap?
Nathan: Jesus has been my total deliverance there. When I went through that divorce, I lost everything I thought I had to hope in. So I didn't feel like I had anything to live for, so I decided to live for Him. I started thinking of everything he'd want me to do, guided by the Word and how Jesus taught his apostles, so I started trying to apply his teaching to what I should be trying to do.
So I started visiting people in prison, the sick, going into the ghettos, witnessing to street prostitutes, everything I could, as radical as I could. The kingdom focus became more adrenaline packed than I thought it would be. I had people threatening to kill me on the street, and I'm out there by myself, just me and God, that's it.
The fight for the kingdom has more adrenaline
I wasn't looking for trouble or being arrogant or for the adrenaline, I was just realizing that the fight for the kingdom has more adrenaline packed scenarios than anything. You wait and see what happens when someone's demonically oppressed and they're screaming for your help and the demons are harassing them. It's indescribable, some of the things I've seen trying to do kingdom ministry.
So that delivered me; I didn't feel sorry for myself anymore. I've seen so much depravity and so much need, and I'm sitting here whining about how my wife left me. It just felt I was being narcissistic and dramatic, throwing a pity party for myself, when in reality, I was so blessed.
I'm not doing stupid stuff, but necessary stuff
Not only blessed, but that God was willing to use a narcissist, continuing to give me an identity in His kingdom, as a fighter for His kingdom. I think he redirected my perverted love for adrenaline, and He redirected that to be used for a healthy purpose. It is now a strength, not a weakness. I'm not doing stupid stuff, I'm doing necessary stuff.
The tree work, again, is just an amazing way to do ministry. God has used me to help people in extreme need, when a tree falls on someone's house. The Lord has given me the favor of helping people in need with my expertise; again, that adrenaline is still there, the tree climbing industry is the most dangerous in the world right now, but somebody's got to do it. I love being able to do it; I'm very passionate about trees and helping people in need, and I'm giving this to His kingdom as much as I can.
And I have to pray actively every day, or else I might slip back and lose this perspective if I'm not remembering my identity in Christ, I very well could slip back into that "woe is me" mentality when things aren't going my way. I might go back to trying to elevate a hobby above my God, where I'm seeking my personal fulfillment in becoming a better climber.
Some climbers, the way they talk, all they care about is climbing, which is such a weird obsession. It actually doesn't seem to bring them any peace. They're sitting there talking about this project, and they gotta prove it to themselves or to the world. It matters so much to climbers that it consumes them; I don't ever want to be like that; I want to be the best I can be, and be competitive, but that's not my ultimate identity.
That's not my ultimate identity
Christ is my ultimate identity, and I cannot ever let the love of climbing surpass my love for God. If God took away climbing, if I got paralyzed one day, then I'd like to think that I would not be upset with God about that, that I would trust Him with the next stage of my life. That kind of perspective, I can't muster that up on my own; I have to pray for that perspective, and remind myself of my real identity, not as a climber, but as a Christian. That's my real identity.
Execution
Nathan has kindly shared a guide for beginners to introduce sport climbing and clipping techniques. Reach out to North Carolina Outdoor Adventures if you are searching for an awesome outdoor experience.
Nathan also wanted to share an example of him and his wife using their tree-climbing skills to decorate a tree with hundreds of feet worth of Christmas lights.
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