A Leap of Faith

So for my birthday this year, I went skydiving again.  The video from this year's jump is here.    Last year's jump, my first, is here.  I could see this becoming an annual thing.  It's exhilarating, but there's also something about facing one's fears, and there is the very real aspect of stepping out on faith.  It takes a lot to approach the open door of an aircraft that's a couple of miles above the ground, and then to willingly exit that aircraft.  It takes a tremendous leap of faith. 

Of course, as soon as you do, the winds rush up to meet you, and you're in some sort of otherworldly experience.  But it takes a lot to get there.  It occurs to me that the process is relevant not only in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense, as well.  How many times do we face uncertainties, or seeming impossibilities?  How many times are we fearful or discouraged by them?  Put off by the raging of the wind, or the height or velocity of our aircraft?  How much does it take from each of us to make that leap into the unknown, sure only of the fact that God holds the outcome in God's hand? 

I think it's something we need to do more often -- relinquishing control (or what we think is control) and offering ourselves to the joy that comes in relying solely on God.

But that's a manifestation of spiritual growth or spiritual development, and that does not come overnight.  I train 5 days a week, three of them with kettlebells.  Now, I'm closer to 60 than I am to any other whole number, and this class has twenty-somethings groaning and moaning.  It's taught by the same guy who teaches Boot Camps.  I don't kid myself that I can do what the 20-somethings do, but I can do a few burpees now, and I can do jumping jacks now, and I can do deeper squats than I ever could, and I can swing a 25-pound bell.  I couldn't do any of that when I started, and my form can certainly get better.

The point is that I can do more now than I could before, and that has come about through training and application of what I've learned.  I believe the same is true in our spiritual lives.  I see so many people who don't appear to exercise their faith, so much as display it.  They have all the answers, they know exactly what Jesus would say and do -- and there is no room in their consciousness for doubt or error -- or growth. 

I'm not so sure I believe that.  I believe that our earthly journey is one in which we are continually stretched and shaped and molded anew.  I don't think it's one where we pick up our cross and parade it around, I think it's one where we pick up our cross, perhaps stumbling under its weight, and if we should drop it, we pick it up again.  I don't believe the process is constant or static; I believe it's continual and dynamic.

Sort of like the process of jumping out of an airplane.  It's all about going into the unknown and finding that God has already been there.