This past week I have spent time going after the more he has to offer me by fully chasing him, and pursuing life in a way I haven’t before. Ultimately I’ve been creating the life I want for myself with him instead of waiting for it to happen. So how have I been doing living thousands of miles away from everything I’ve ever known?
I jumped in… did you?
You are standing at the edge of an old pier in the middle of a random town in Albania. People are off to the side saying, “Don’t do it the bus will get wet and that isn’t right” and others were saying, “It’s so fun, don’t miss out”. So you look around you and down into the lake. You see old rusty metal bars poking out from the pier you’re standing on. You look down and you see crystal clear water. But you also see seaweed and worry rusty metal bars might be down there too because of the pier. It also doesn’t look like a crazy far jump, but it is always safer not to jump… right? Anyways you aren’t alone, there are locals and some of your squad mates around you on top of the people saying to jump and not to jump. You ask the locals and your squad mates what to do and some of them haven’t jumped and others have. But none of that maters because you still have to decide for yourself, will you jump?
It’s like the situation you are in with Christ and the situation I was in with doing the world race and the situation that is presented to me every day I wake up on the race.
Following Christ is not understood by everyone and so you get the two different groups of people on the sidelines of your life saying you shouldn’t jump and you should jump. The group that tells you not to is sometimes full of the people that mean the most to you in your life. Normally saying things along the lines of it isn’t safe or it may effect these other people in a bad way or that you will no longer be “cool”, anything to try and steer you away from it. Then you have the group telling you to jump. This group is normally full of believers who have been down the path that you have the option to take. They know the rewards at the end of what may seem like a scary and hard jump. It is also full of people who truly want what’s best for you whether that is in the form of people that are close to you or sometimes unlikely people who seem to just pop up right in this time of your decision. You’re standing on an old pier with rusty metal bars because you’re no longer “perfect”. You have been through life and have had struggles and hard times. And you have parts of your life that just aren’t what someone would call beautiful or handsome anymore. Part of you hopes you’re okay where you are, but you’ve always dreamed for more. That’s why the water is clear. In it you see your reflection but as the best version of you with the life you’ve always dreamed of. But there’s no security in the free falling of jumping. There’s seaweed and a mystery of what is in the water because there’s a part of you that is scared if you do jump that you will fall into more of the un-perfect that you’re already in now. You don’t know if you’ll get hurt more or if the life where you are on top of the pier, though not perfect, is still the better option. There are locals around because some people live at this spot all their life. Some make the decision to jump and run back to the pier because they want their old life back. Some never make the decision to jump but always dream about it. Your squad mates are around because others make the jump and don’t regret it but show up on your pier in hopes of helping you jump into the more life has to offer.
Jumping isn’t a thing you are faced with only once.
You face it when you decide if you will be a Christian or not. But from then on you, if you said yes to Christianity, you have a series of jumps you have the option to take at different points in your life. These jumps are for you to continue diving deeper into relationship with God and saying yes to the life he wants for you.
For me saying yes to the race was one of my jumps.
But waking up every day actually on the race is a jump too. I have to find the edge of the pier I have created, look to the more I have dreamed of, fully invest everything I can into what lies ahead, and jump.
For me that jumping has looked like going to him before others, trusting that he has me, believing that he knows what he’s doing, letting go of control, doing things I hate (cleaning pig pens), serving others just because I can (even when I don’t feel like it), seeking out the imperfect rusty metal poles in my pier and asking him to take them away so I can jump easier, trying to hear him more and more, and ultimately keeping a positive attitude when nothing is what I thought it would be like.
So what pier are you on right now? What jump are you considering to take but haven’t yet? Challenge yourself to find that edge of your pier and to jump into the more God always has for you. You will never be done jumping and taking those risks of trust into him, but the more you jump the more you feel his guidance of where and when to jump. Find the edge of your pier with him and go for it…
Looking back, I would take all of the jumps I have taken so far over and over and over again because of where it is leading me.
I feel free, full of life, full of joy for what is in store, and full of excitement for this crazy awesome journey that will extend into the rest of my life.
I have adventure ahead of me… and that’s what I can’t get out of my head now because when I literally took the jump off of an Albania pier I heard him tell me, “I have an adventure for you”.
