The Parachute of Faith

So tonight, stirred on by a great meeting with some friends, I was led to this little example to sum up faith...well at least as well as I can explain it.

Okay so first lets envision you were duped into going on a skydiving trip with a few friends. You are super terrified of jumping out of a plane not to mention you are scared of heights so jumping out of a plane at any height greater than 3 feet is too much for you to bear.

You decide to do some research about skydiving and the parachutes that will help to ensure your safe landing on terra firma. You study the weight capacity of the parachute, the oxygen level when you jump from the plane, you study the success rate of jumpers landing without splattering all over the ground and so on.

The day of the jump is here and you have prepared yourself with all the information possible and you have rehearsed what the jump will look like but still you are not settled because you have no way of knowing whether or not you will land safely. Now in an ideal world, like in the movie Back to the Future, you can travel to the future and verify that you actually land safely.

So you are standing there all ready to go. You have thought through this but you realize again you can't know for sure so you hold on to the side as you jump. Did you really let go and trust in the parachute to do its job?

Maybe you jump and you wait and wait and wait for the parachute to open itself, eventually you hit the ground having not pulled the cord to release the chute and well you guess what happens to you.

But on the other hand maybe you let go of the side, jump and when the time is right pull the string and glide safely to the earth below you. You did it! You took the leap of faith and trusted in the parachute and it didn't let you down.

Here is where I was going with this. We can reason, research and do all the intellectual things involved in attempting to know God, just like we did before our skydiving trip.

Eventually we come to the point where we realize we cannot reason and research anymore because we realize that knowing God is more than just reason and fact. There is a huge chasm that seperates us from God and eventually we have to jump.

Don't jump holding on to the facts that led you this far thinking that becasue you still cling to you reason that faith will lead you to the answer while you never let faith actually do its thing and become  well, faith.

Also, don't just jump into faith waiting for God to do something for you before you actually try to pull the parachute of faith for yourself, if you do this you will wait and wait and wait until splat...its too late.

Instead jump, pull the string and let the faith you say you have guide the parachute open and land safely in the arms of the Savior.

Are you willing to jump in faith for God? It is my sincere prayer that you are... I will be praying for you all that God's divine parachute opens and guides you safely home!