Dive in, Faith First
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Laughter echoed off the walls of the deep end as I floated to the surface, defeated once again. The metal ladder felt soft on my feet as I trudged out to try again. Standing completely exposed, crowd now at full attention after multiple smacks to the surface, the water dripped off of my goose bumps.
“You can do it!” I encouraged. “I promise, you will be so glad you did.”
Teenagers think parents have their heads screwed on backwards. Everything we say gets run through a mill of mental questions. My daughter’s were spinning in her mind so fast, her feet were frozen to the rock where she stood. It’s since become a summer tradition to jump off the rock cliff and into the warm waters of the old quarry on an island near our home. But the first time, it didn’t matter how many voices tried to encourage and push her feet off of that rock. It wasn’t until her best friend offered a hand, and jumped in with her that she went.
Whether we have someone in life like my dad, to laugh at the belly smacks with us, or my daughter, a friend who will hold out their hand and jump off the cliff with us, all of us have the opportunity to embrace the permanent presence of Jesus to powerfully propel us through life’s scary moments, hard times, and painful trials. He’s always smiling in encouragement, sharing a laugh, and holding out His hand, in a prominently more surreal and perfect way than any human can. Paul wrote,
Recently, to cap off our first mission trip, the national team assigned to us took us across the street from the guarded camp we’d been staying to jump off the dock. The lake filled in a vast, old volcano crater, and the dock was higher than the quarry cliff on the island by our home. The first time we crossed the road, earlier in the week, my daughter could not move past her fear to join her friends. On this day, she was determined to make the leap into the lake. Once again, she needed a hand and a friend to jump in with her. After that, she swung from the trapeze-like bar and splashed down into the old filled-in volcano crater lake over and over again. It’s a beautiful memory, of a beautiful place.
Life is full of opportunities to jump into the proverbial lake. It’s full of promise to jump into actual lakes, too! Jesus is amazing. He died, so we could live life to the full. Yes, we are on a mission to spread the Gospel. We aim to be laser-focused like Paul, and endure the trials that threaten to trip us in order to live the life God intends us to live. But God created the world, and all of the beauty in it. There is a lot He wants to show us along the way. The work of the Lord is not all toil; there is joy in the journey.
We may be traveling down a dirt road, line with armed guards and protected by walls, yet the further up it we drive, the better view of the beautiful mountains, and the filled in crater of a lake. There is beauty all around us, in the midst of the mess. There are reasons to worship littered in the workloads we carry. Let’s not give up when we smack the water. Let’s keep laughing to the surface, choosing to see the good, and journey with our awesome, amazing, Jesus – Savior of the world, and our personal friend.
God Bless, and Glory Up.
Additional Resources
Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition. New Living Translation. Tyndall House Publishers. Carol Stream, IL. Copyright 2019.
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Praying for Peace through Psalm 122
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