Faith, or What God Has Taught Me About Jumping

I wrote this during the summer of 2008, just before heading to New York for my freshman year of college.

We're standing on the edge of a huge cliff

And God wants us to just--jump off.

We don't know why. But we definitely know He wants us to. We've tried to rationalize it. We've told ourselves there's no way that's really what He's saying. We misunderstood Him. I mean, we're humans, right? We mess things up. We're probably not supposed to be on this cliff at all. God probably didn't even want us here in the first place.

Right?

But in your soul, you KNOW you have been called here, to jump.

The Israelites were called to jump. Their parents had been slaves in Egypt. After testing God too many times, they died without ever seeing the Promised Land. Now their children stood on the bank of the Jordan River. The Promised Land was so close, except for that one river. It was huge. God told Joshua to tell the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant and step out into the river. He had already parted the Red Sea--a river would be nothing.

The river was wide--at least a mile.

But God split the sea, didn't He?

Yes, but that was a long time ago. Maybe God didn't do miracles like that any more. Maybe they weren't supposed to come this way at all. Maybe Joshua, eager but inexperienced, had dreamed this and just thought it was God. It didn't make sense--and surely God wouldn't expect millions of people to just do something that didn't even make sense.

But in their souls they knew He wanted them to jump.

So the priests stepped out into the raging, flooded river.

And nothing happened.

They waited.

...and waited...

...and still they waited.

And then, when the priests felt like fools and maybe even Joshua had begun to doubt, the river began to fade. Like an enormous sigh, the waters sank and flowed away, leaving only a wide ditch to show where they had once raged. For a moment Israel stood in awe. Then, with a mighty shout, they surged forward, a river of people sweeping across the now-dry river bed. Their God had come through for them again.

As soon as the priests' feet touched the water, God began to pile up the waters at Adam, a city over twenty miles away. But the priests didn't know that. They only knew what they were supposed to do. They could not see what was happening over the horizon. But they trusted God. So they stood. God was worth trusting.

We know that God wants us to jump. We know He promises not to just let us "splat" on the bottom.

Will He?

It doesn't make sense. Yet we know that we have been called.

So we jump.

What happens? Sometimes we fall for a long time, and then, just before we hit the bottom, we realize that He has given us wings. Sometimes we fall and suddenly feel the jerk of a parachute snapping open.

Or maybe we discover that the cliff was only 3 feet high.

Or maybe, God just puts a massive mattress at the bottom, something that makes hitting the bottom not such a bad thing after all.

But no matter what happens, God will absolutely NEVER let you splat.

You will never regret jumping.

You know you have been called. What will you do with it?

He is worth trusting.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." Hebrews 11:1