I'm afraid of heights. It may go back to when I was a young boy and my brother coached/coaxed me to jump off the front steps of a neighborhood church. He did so by instructing me to construct a make shift parachute by holding onto the ends of a blanket. I fell to the earth with a thud! I'm afraid of heights.
My childlike faith in my brother was sorely, and I mean sorely, tested. You can imagine my amazement when I read about Luke Aikin's leap of faith that was recently televised. In a nut shell, Aikin jumped out of an airplane flying at 25,000 feet. Below on the desert floor was constructed a 100 x 100 foot net suspended 200 feet off the ground. Aikin was aiming to land on the net. The challenge was he jumped out of the airplane without a parachute or wingsuit. His 2 minute free fall was televised live. What a leap of faith!
Of course, Luke Aikin didn't leap blindly; but rather, he followed intricate planning and was as prepared as he could be. While I can say that I will never, and I mean never, take the leap of faith that Aikin made, can I say the same about the preparation needed to grow in faith?
As Gray has preached each of the "Blessed are..." in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I became deeply inspired to re-read and pray the Psalms and the prophet Isaiah. Each of the blessings echoes the psalmist and the prophet and reminded me how Jesus learned them as a boy. Yes, as God's son he knew them, but as the Son of Man, one of us, he learned them. His leap of faith that led to Calvary was facilitated by the years of preparation in the synagogue and then the years of ministry proclaiming the good news of God's Kingdom.
Perhaps you can foresee a time when you will be making a leap of faith. No better time than now to get back into scriptures. Might I suggest Matthew 5, the Psalms, and Isaiah? Look before you leap!
Prayer for Today
We thank you for your Word, O Lord. Teach us your ways and speak to our inner most being through your scriptures, so that we might know you better and understand more fully our next leap of faith. Amen.
