The other day the guys were all able to have a relaxing morning together and we headed down to a swimming area not far from the beach here. It's an outdoor pool in a naturally formed area, so fresh water flows in from an underground river and then out to the sea. It's maintained by a small team and is run on the donations that those who use it make, and it has an elevated set of rocks at one end of it.
So, those rocks became our jumping point. About 4m high at the highest point they're not too bad, but as with all things like this when you're up there it seems pretty scary. We all took many turns jumping off of the ledge, or running and jumping from the highest point, or rope swinging out and jumping but at points we had to goad each other on.
"You can do it!" "Don't think, just jump!" "Ignore the thoughts telling you it's not worth it!" and so on.
And we reflected about how you want to do it, but when you get up there it's like there's a voice telling you not to go through with it.
As we jumped we took to shouting things out as we went, silly little phrases or something funny related to our ongoing conversations, but I took up the phrase "screw you voice!". It was quite exhilerating because I knew that every time I jumped I was literally facing a fear and saying "you know what? I'm stronger than you and you can't hold me back from doing what I want to do!"
So this has gotten me thinking about other areas of my life: Where am I being held back? What little voices do I let convince me that thing I want is not worth the risk? Where do I need to look a situation in the face and say "screw you voice!" and dive in anyway? Because there was no regret in doing what I wanted to do, only a voice that was ultimately powerless and always wrong.
How about you? Are there any voices that you suspect might be wrong and are you prepared to prove them powerless?
SIDE NOTE: At Month 8 debrief we had a couple of small changes to our team – Dusty chose to step down as team leader so that he can spend the remaining time on the race as a regular racer and Jenn stepped up to fulfil the role of team leader for the group; and (because we apparently like doing so) we changed our team name again, we are now Team Super Mario! The name came from Jenn's 'Super Mario Principle', being that you feel like you've learned lessons, solved problems, etc. in your life and walk with God only for them to come back again later on at a deeper or more difficult level.
