Jump

We have both wanted to do this for quite some time, and finally yesterday we jumped. Jennifer and I took the kids out to Eagle Lake and the two of us went skydiving while the kids watched. We were scheduled to jump around 12:30 but the fog had set in and the plane could not go up til skies were blue. We left baby Molly at home and took William and Catherine and Jamie and Aunt Molly came an hour or so later with Sam and Blake. It was a little insignificant airport, with a small runway and several of slightly built hangers, in the midst of fields and fields of farmland. Scattered picnic tables were set up in the large cemented area between hangers, and people were just hanging around waiting for the call to jump, and enjoying the ourdoors. Something calm, slow paced and peaceful about just being in the outdoors.

The kids threw rocks in the ditch, played a little football, tossed around the tether ball, annihilated some mammoth ant beds, ate snacks, checked out the sitting planes, including the one we were to ride on, watched the agriculture planes load up and take off etc. But finally, not being sure if we were ever going to get to jump, Jamie and Molly and Sam and Blake headed home around 3:30 due to prior plans but we stuck it out in hopes that maybe just maybe the clouds would separate and blue skies would take over. About 5:30, we were harnessed and ready, for the first pack had taken off and landed safely, the second pack was in the air and our turn was quickly on the "to go" board.

We had been watching as parachutes were packed, videographers were camera reading, harnesses were distributed, and instructors were claiming their tandem guests. But now it was our turn. Finally! Jennifer and I were just about as calm as you could get, I mean how peaceful is a day in the country just watching kids throw rocks and taking walks and watching as clouds moved about. William didn't miss a beat, he carefully noted every single move that anyone made, meanwhile Catherine had fallen asleep on the couch in the open aired, carpeted hanger that we were all in.

The time had come to head to the plane, and we climbed up a wide, thin runged ladder, got settled on the metal benches which flanked the inside body, belted in, and the engines started and we were off. Still just thrilled for the adventure. We flew about 15 minutes with the inside door opened most of the time and then we were to get positioned on the lap of our tandem instructor. He connected four positioned clips from my harness to his and we were tightly tucked together. Then one by one the jumps began. There were a couple of single jumpers that went first, then Jenn, then a couple of others, then me. You make your way to the open door, put your toes on the edge of the threshold, while holding to an overhead bar, and then the instructor says ready, and you jump, falling freely for about a minute, and then the cord is pulled, the parachute engages and you float for about 15 minutes to the bottom. An awesome adventure for sure.

I put my life in the actual hands of a total stranger, 13,000 feet above ground, falling at a speed of 120 miles an hour. The required video that we watched before jumping gave us every reason to say no, due to danger and risk, but flipped at the end by saying that the adventure outweighed the risks. We were already committed mentally and we were going to see it through. The instructor was experienced and knew the precautions to take for safety. He knew the route and timing, and how to adjust the cords for direction. I loved it when he told me just before jumping, if you find you can't breathe, it is because you are paralyzed, don't forget to take a breath. Neither Jennifer or I experienced any of that stuff. It was a total blast for both of us especially to be sharing such an experience.

But this is clearly an analogy about trust. Whose hands do we put our life in? Who do we trust with total certainty to handle our life jumps? We have a heavenly instructor who is experienced beyond our imagination. I now have not only a visual of what it is to trust and be harnessed to someone else, and to be dependent on their every move, but I now have lived it. I heard the four clicks when my instructor attached my harness to his. I felt him pulling on my straps to make sure they were tightened and connected.
I felt secure even knowing that I was shortly going to be gliding through the air free of binding restriction, yet partnered by a trusted instructor. Isn't that the way God wants us to be with him? Doesn't he want us to be free of binding restrictions that are brought on my the world's fallacies, free to obey him and do what is right and God centered and not self indulged, and not be so restricted by what others think and do. God wants us to trust him, and live in His freedom and the security of being harnessed to him. That is what will set us free from the anxieties that keep us bound in fear and the stress that keeps us steeped in discontent. God knows the way, he holds the cords of direction, he knows the timing, he knows His target, and as long as I am consciously harnessed to him physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually (four clicks), I will land safely on my feet, and be grounded in His love.

I could not see the connections when my instructor attached our harnesses, but I had to trust that he knew what he was doing.
We cannot see God but we know by how we approach every situations if we are clicked onto God in the four areas of our life. If we are struggling physically, we are to click on to God's promises of healing and transformation. If we are struggling mentally, we are to click on to God's truths and disregard the lies that the enemy tries to slip through the cracks of our heart. If we are struggling, emotionally we have to faithfully click into the thoughts that God is in control, he loves us with a mighty love that has not bounds and he will light our path and help us to find our way out of the darkness. Finally if we are struggling
spiritually, we have to click onto the fact that there is no other God before us who has the authority, the power, the strength, the wisdom, the forgiveness, the compassion or the love for us that our heavenly father does.

We all stand at the threshold of a daunting jump in life at one time or another, and we can be assured that when the time comes for us to take that leap, we must do it in faith. For when we are harnessed with God, we need no other binding holds, for he will guide us by the cords of his faithfulness, and gently let us glide through the airs of our adversities, and direct us safely to his intended target, for his intended purposes.

Skydiving was a most wonderful adventure, but it is only a temporary flight. Our adventure with God is a lasting one, while the the winds of time and clouds of perspective change with every given day, God remains faithful and trustworthy. May we stay harnessed to our heavenly instructor and embrace the flight.

James 1:25
But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do.

Dear Lord, Thank you for the opportunity to fly if only for a moment. May I remember that when I am listing to one side or the other and allow situations before me to be my persuasion instead of leaning on you, I have somehow come unhooked from you and need to be reattached at a given point. Connect me and keep me harnessed on all my four fronts. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . For His Glory will shine through!

website: www.cathyjodeit.com
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