Trust.
It’s all about trust.
We jump off a tall bridge, attached to a length of shock cord, with nothing below us but the earth, and we expect to live to tell the story when we’re finished.
Trust. Faith. Belief. Conviction. We have to feel this way or we would never jump.
What’s our trust based in? A length of shock cord tied to our legs, a segment of line that will halt our fall into the abyss and allow us to be pulled back up once again.
Where do we find our faith to jump out on God’s Word, to step into the unknown to do his will?
Our Father in heaven is our spiritual shock cord, the trusted line that will halt our fall and allow us to be lifted back on high each time we leap into the unknown.
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us our confidence in him is secure. He is our strong connection, securely attached; and we need have no fear that we will come undone from him.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Ephesians 4:31-32 is the rush of the wind against our face, and the joy of relief as we rebound toward our Lord. It’s our forgiveness toward others that makes the trip sweet.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Jeremiah 29:11 reveals God’s shock cord as part of his design for successful Christian living. He will never let go of us, for we are precious to him.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Trust is hard to fix in our hearts. If we’ve leaped before and crashed at the end of the journey, we’re apprehensive the next time. We stand on the precipice, and all we can remember is how hard our landing hurt.
Isaiah 43:18-19 explains the depth of trust we can find in the Lord:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Part of the thrill of bungee jumping is the long shot that we might not come back up. It’s the “what if” of risking everything. Walking with Christ is the same. What if, just what if we lose everything?
Standing on that bridge, on that platform over that deep chasm cutting through the earth, just for a moment, we wrestle with doubt, then we leap. For a precious few moments, we are in glorious freefall, and our trust in our bungee cord doesn’t matter. It holds or not, because at that moment, we float in the sky, free from the restraints of the earth, one with the heavens.
Living with Christ is exactly the same. We may wrestle with doubt, but to live free in him, disengaged from the restraints of our humanity, we must decide to fully trust in him and leap from our position of perceived safety. Just for a moment, it may feel like freefall, but God’s shock cord has us firmly bound. No matter how out-of-control our experience may seem, God’s secure line will lift us up once again.
Trust. It’s all about faith in our Lord, and in the plans he has for us.
Once we’re firmly attached to God, no matter where we leap, he will bring us back home unto him.
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