| Imagine the scenario- it's a beautiful sunny day, you're visiting family in North Idaho, and you decide that you need to go to the water to cool off. You call up your friends, hike a quarter mile up a hill, find a rock, walk to the edge, and you.... JUMP!! As you are free falling through the air you scream with joy as you know that you are about to enter into the comfort of the cool water. You hit the water with force and sink into the clear abyss of the lake; just to swim to the top and do it all again. Cliff-jumping is one of my favorite activities. However, being afraid of heights, it is one of the most terrifying activities as well. The act of standing on the edge, looking down at the water FAR FAR FAR below you- legs shaking and all- and thinking "I'm really going to jump off this rock into that?". Then there's the jump and all is well because you know that you can't take it back. You're falling into the water and it's going to catch you and there is no space for regret. As I was cliff-jumping a few weeks ago I realized that this process is a lot like life. As I was standing on the edge and my friend and I were debating on who would go first the Lord spoke to me about how life is like jumping off the rock. He takes us to the edge and calls us to "jump". To "jump" into the embrace of His loving arms, His grace, His kindness, His direction. Jumping can be terrifying, but it is so worth the joy that comes. Jumping may not look like the "smart" thing, but the rewards of the joy, the peace, the comfort, the power that comes through being all-in is totally worth it. As Jim Elliot says "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose". So, what do you have to lose? Why not jump? For each of us, the jump may look different- for some it is receiving Christ for the first time (the fact that He dies that we may not only have life, but abundant life... how AMAZING is that?!); for some it may be taking the step to take a call into the mission field overseas (to sell your belongings and GO!); for some it may be giving to the poor and supporting the oversea missionaries around you; and for some it may be reaching out to the neighbor next door, your coworker, the babysitter. Whatever it is that God is calling you to jump into know that it is worth it and He will not fail you. I have come face to face with this realization of needing to jump again just last week. As I work with Youth Missions International as a faith-supported missionary calling forth youth and young adults into the calling the Lord has for them I have been tested. With finances, with health, with car maintenance, with relationships... every area seems to have been going through fire the last three months. However, I can feel the refining of His grace in the fire; I know He is close by and that He is leading me in His perfect ways; I know that I cannot lean on my own understanding and must trust Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength not only in word, but also in deed. Each day as I make the choice to put my trust in Him I experience His peace that surpasses understanding. As I make the choice to jump into the unknown time-and-time again I experience His leadership, His alignment of details, and His perfect orchestration of placing loving community around me. Look around where you are at and rejoice. Look up and thank Him for the people around you. Keep yourself open to His movement; but when He says "stay" do not hesitate to rejoice in that and dwell in the land He has given to you. Continue to go deeper in relationship with Him. Trust Him in His love for you; trust Him in His pursuit of you; trust Him as He draws you deeper into His heart; and trust Him in His leadership as he continually transforms you into more of His image day-after-day. "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18 Also, here's a snippet from Numbers that reminds me that I need to continually seek the Lord day-after-day for He is a living God and I cannot rely on my own understanding of where I am and for how long. "Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped. Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not journey. So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the Lord they would remain encamped, and according to the command of the Lord they would journey. So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey. Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. At the command of the Lord they remained encamped, and at the command of the Lord they journeyed; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses." Numbers 9:17-23 |
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"You will go forth in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will |
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