Upon graduation from
college and unsure of a career path to pursue, I moved back in with Mom and
Dad. I worked construction during that time, and since I had low overhead, I
was able to make tons of progress paying off my college loans. Free of any
major responsibilities and feeling adventurous at this point, I decided to
start making headway on my lofty goal of visiting every continent.
My folks had taken me
to Europe previously, so I could cross that one off the list. I knew that at
some point in the future I was more likely to have additional responsibilities
(and might have to pay for additional tickets if I were to go traveling), so I determined
it would be good to look at the continents that were the most difficult to get
to. I really wanted to visit Antarctica, but I figured it would probably be
best to get some general travel experience before venturing anywhere near the
South Pole. Deciding that it would be nice to go to an English-speaking
country, I settled on Australia.
I found an adventure
company that did tours all over the world, and they had a few Australian trips coming
up. On the agenda for this particular trip was whitewater rafting, hiking and
mountain biking in a rainforest, a few days on the Great Barrier Reef, and
ocean kayaking out to, then spending a few nights camping on, an island off the
Australian coast. I got signed up for a November trip.
While trees are losing
leaves and the weather’s getting chilly in North America in November, it’s
springtime in the southern hemisphere. Add to that the fact that the area where
most of this trip took place was closer to the equator than Jamaica is, and it
looked like I was going to have a tan at Thanksgiving.
That figure is for a direct flight; it doesn’t count connecting flights!
The trip ended up being
a lot of fun, and I had some neat experiences. I’ll cover a few of them in the
next couple of posts, but for now it’s important to remember that even if you
ride in a plane to the other side of the world almost 10,000 miles away, God’s
still the same God He was before you left.
Whether you’re having a
“Jonah” moment and are trying to run away, or are homesick, afraid, and want to
see something familiar, God’s
still God no matter where you go.
7Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,”
12Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
Your
decisions have consequences, but don’t let those consequences put limits on
you.
In college I majored in
Biology, but I went the first three semesters without identifying what I wanted
to focus my studies on.
You can get through your
college experience that way, but I wouldn’t advise it. The best part about this
route was the blissful ignorance of those first three semesters. I attended a Christian
liberal arts college, where as a part of the degree requirements, each student
had to complete courses from a wide array of educational topics to round out
his or her knowledge base. In those early semesters in college I took courses
in anything from Biblical Literature to Psychology to Math to Spanish to Ethics
to Macroeconomics to Tennis.
I’m not sure why it
took me so long to realize it, but after awhile I figured out that I was
running out of these “Gen Eds” to take. I needed to figure out how to fill the
remaining five semesters. In an epiphany, I began to understand that I needed
to figure out what I wanted to declare for my major. I ended up selecting
Biology with an Environmental Emphasis.
As you can imagine, if
you want to major in a science, it means you’ll need to take lots of science courses.
That’s not a bad thing as long as you start on them right away, but if you wait
to get started on them, like I did, it means you’re living, eating, and
breathing science classes later on.
After my realization I
worked with my faculty adviser to figure out how to make it work. I was a Bio
major, but didn’t get signed up for the most basic of biology classes until
halfway through my second year. Then I signed up for a four-week summer Bio
course with class all morning and lab work all afternoon, Monday through
Friday. (My brain nearly melted during that class. I was an average student
that just finished my Sophomore year, and most of the other students in the
course were Freshmen honors students that had spent a semester abroad and now just
needed to catch up.)
Junior year was also
packed with science classes, but I still managed to “kick the can down the
road” with one of the key requirements for a Biology major: two semesters’
worth of Chemistry. By the time I began Senior year and started getting into
Chemistry, I realized that I was in over my head. I couldn’t stand Chemistry.
The professors were great, but I had a terrible time grasping a lot of the
material. I had waited until my last two semesters to take two semesters of
Chemistry. There would be no withdrawing from the class to arrange a more
convenient courseload.
It was already a busy
year…I had a Senior Seminar to deliver, I was the Vice President of the Paddle
Sports club, I had a few work/study jobs, a buddy and I were getting ready to
drive out to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, I had a weekly workout
routine at the gym, and there was general fun to be had (after all, it was
Senior year!).
Even with all I had
going on, my whole senior year began to revolve around how I could pass
Chemistry. I skipped out on some pranks or outings that would have been fun to
be a part of. There was a study group that I started attending each time it
met. I linked up with one of the Chemistry Majors, who never seemed to sleep,
for help on my homework when I was frustrated and at the end of my rope. With
plenty of patience he walked me through each problem. Joel, if you’re out
there, thanks for all your help! You saved my bacon!
After all of the
craziness and mental anguish, I finally passed both semesters of Chemistry.
Never was I so happy to complete two classes.
I whine about it, but this
was a crisis of my own making. Because of the choices I made, I backed myself
into a corner and made my path to success much more difficult. Here’s the
tie-in: even when you become a Christian, your problems don’t go away. God
loves you and forgives you if you’re truly sorry, but you must still live with
the consequences of your past actions.
Becoming a Christian
does not remove all the pain and agony you face. In some ways it makes things
more difficult. The good news is that a relationship with Christ gives you hope
and strength to face each day, even when each day has repercussions of your
previous actions.
As one of God’s chosen,
He provides what you need to overcome each obstacle. You may have made your
circumstances more complex, but He’s the one that is able to supply for all of
your needs. Christianity
is not an escape from your problems; it is an opportunity to have hope when
facing them. Consider that as you work toward becoming the person He
wants you to be.
Last week I posted about how we’re in a war. It can be difficult to see the best way to gird up and fight back, though. How can we be part of God’s plan to overcome the world? Well, I’ll tell you.
When it first came out, I really enjoyed the movie
“The Bourne Identity.” For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s about an
American that gets recovered while floating unconscious off the coast of France;
he has no memory of who he is, how he ended up in the water, or why he has a pair
of gunshot wounds in his back.
As the story unfolds we try to solve the mystery
alongside him, but what’s very interesting is that even though he can’t
remember who he is, certain skills come very naturally to him. He speaks at
least three different languages, he ties complicated knots without knowing why
he knows how to do it. He excels at hand-to-hand fighting, combat driving, and
use of various weapons. He’s got serious skills, but doesn’t have a clue about
the purpose behind applying them.
Obviously he fits into a larger story, but when we
meet him, he’s just a guy with skills trying to figure out his place in the
world. He’s a highly skilled, but uncertain fellow without a purpose.
Does that sound like you?
We all come pre-loaded with different talents,
skills, and gifts. Some have obvious application (leadership or teaching, for
example), while others seem like little more than amusing party tricks. We can
use them for our own benefit in some cases, but it’s important to remember that
we were given specific skills for a specific reason.
What’s the definition of a gift? An excerpt from the
video below says that it’s “the thing you do the absolute best with the least
amount of effort.” It’s something that comes naturally to you; something you
can do without even trying. It doesn’t have to be something spiritual or
church-y. Running focus groups; skateboarding; comforting hurting people;
competing in triathlons; interior decorating; creating various forms of art;
plumbing. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, but by pursuing your gift or
using your talent right now, God will position you in a place He wants you to
be at just the right time in the future. Many people turn or run from their
gift because it’s something they don’t want to be gifted in, and they pursue
something that “makes more sense” but doesn’t fit who they are. If that’s you, I
urge you to stop chasing something you’re not meant to be and embrace the tools
you already possess. You have them for a reason.
Our mystery American from the movie eventually
discovers what he is, and having that context makes him more comfortable in his
own skin; learning more about the background of his skills gives him purpose
and structure to help him apply his skills. Christians have the same thing. After you’ve accepted Christ as
your Savior, your purpose is no longer to find God, it is to glorify Him. You want
to know how to be a part of that? Do what you were made to do: use your
God-given talents to live your life in honor of Him.
Think of a tool that goes unused: a hammer that
doesn’t strike; scissors that don’t cut. These are tools with unmet potential.
It’s not up to the tools to be used in the right way or envision the details of
what they’re used for; that’s the craftsman’s job. As “Christian tools,” we don’t
need to be overwhelmed by trying to discover what the plan is; we only need to
place ourselves in the hands of the Master and be used the way He sees best.
I’m including a link to a motivational YouTube video. It’s a little lengthy (about half an hour), but since it’s audio only, you don’t need to watch it as it plays. It’s a good listen while folding laundry, working in the garage, cooking dinner, working out, or driving. It can give you a better idea about how to honor God by employing your gift(s).
Know someone that would like to read this? Pass it along to them! New content posted every Thursday.
In the military, especially in units that operate fighter aircraft, there’s something called a “show of force.” This is a tactic that was used a lot in Iraq and Afghanistan early in our military’s operations in those countries. A show of force is when a very maneuverable plane gets low to the ground, goes full throttle, and flies as close as possible past the enemy on the ground.
If you’re on the
receiving end, this tactic is not something that will physically affect you;
there are no shots fired and there’s typically no ordnance dropped. If you’re
unaccustomed to sudden loud noises, though, it’s something that will make you
wet your pants. The idea behind a show of forces is simply to make you cower in
fear and, at least for a little while, make you stop doing what you were doing
while you question your life decisions.
A few years back I
experienced a spiritual show of force. I had been working for a few weeks to
prepare a talk for a group at church. To use another military analogy, to “red-team”
something means to examine your own capabilities/facilities from the
perspective of the enemy, taking the opportunity to uncover weaknesses and
vulnerabilities. For the talk I had been preparing, I focused on “red-teaming
humanity” from the perspective of Satan and his fallen angels. If you’re
familiar with C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape
Letters, it was kind of like that, but delivered in the form of a
brief/presentation.
At first I thought it
was a cool idea. It was neat to gauge Humanity’s collective spiritual weaknesses.
The problem was that to do it effectively, you have to think like you’re a
member of the bad guys’ team, and that becomes uncomfortable and even troubling
to do for an extended period of time when you have Christ living in you. As the
time drew near for me to present the project, I was excited to share what I had
prepared, but I was very eager to be done with it.
I know I’m jumping all
over the place and mixing metaphors, but I need to throw another one at you.
Imagine you’re on a professional football team, and somehow your team gets hold
of your opponent’s playbook. You’d be ecstatic, but if the other team found
out, they’d do just about anything to keep you from exploiting it. I had put
together a brief that was going to show some of the basic strategies from the
Devil’s playbook. I even thought “you know, leading up to this brief, it wouldn’t
be surprising if I had some sort of experience that was a little outside the
norm.”
I had no idea at the
time, but I was spot on. Less than a week before I was to give the talk, I
experienced the show of force.
I was at a gas station,
getting my car inspected. There was a spot inside the gas station where people
could hang out while their cars were in the garage. I was sitting there, doing
stuff on my phone, when the door opened and someone walked in. I didn’t look
up, but I heard a woman start speaking strangely. I assumed two people had
walked in, or that she was speaking to someone nearby. There are a lot of
weirdos around, so I didn’t look up; I assumed she was speaking to someone she
knew. Still looking at my phone, I was surprised when she reached down and
touched my arm. I was startled to look up and see her staring down at me with a
pretty intense look.
She seemed a little bit
like she wasn’t playing with a full deck, if you know what I mean. I don’t even
remember what she said next, but I totally blew her off. She walked past me and
sat down on a chair behind me.
I wasn’t sure what to
make of the whole situation, but as I refocused on whatever I was doing on my
phone, I started thinking about some of our pastor’s main themes of his
then-current series: don’t stay silent; engage.
I kind of worked my way up to it, then turned to face this woman. I was caught off guard to see that she wasn’t sitting like a normal person. She was sort of sliding off the chair, rigid, with both arms stretched behind her unnaturally and her head tilted far back.
I plowed ahead anyway.
I asked her about one of the strange words I remembered her saying. Thus began
a bizarre encounter that I don’t even remember very much of. I do remember that
without me giving any indication of my spiritual beliefs, she started ripping
on Jesus Christ pretty hard. She behaved very unnaturally and aggressively
tried to persuade me that Christianity was false and misleading.
This went on for a few
minutes, and I can’t even tell you how glad I was when the guy told me that my
car was ready. I didn’t even care whether it passed or failed; I popped up out
of my seat and started walking his way. The woman suddenly became very adamant
about touching my hand. “Let me shake your hand.” I declined, and she extended
her hand quite urgently, saying “I need to touch you.” I later recounted these
events to my pastor, and when I asked him what that part was all about, he
explained that some people believe they can transfer spirits from one person to
another by touching. Now, because God only allows demonic forces to go so far,
I don’t think that would have been a concern, but let me tell you…I had
absolutely no problem skipping out of there without saying a cordial goodbye.
Friends, I don’t know
if this has occurred to you, but we’re in a war. There’s a whole lot out there
that our senses cannot perceive. Looking at the last 10, 20, or 30 years, it
seems like the dark forces are the ones making all the moves and all the noise
(has our country moved toward or away from Christianity during that time?). To
use another metaphor, imagine there’s a fire that needs to be put out, and that
God’s Holy Spirit takes the form of a nearby lake. The water to extinguish that
fire is present, but without something the Holy Spirit can fill, a vessel of
some sort (Christians), the water does nothing to fight the fire. Please don’t
misunderstand me; I’m not
saying that God is powerless without us, but I am saying that He chooses to
work through us. When we allow
God to work through us, we become that cup, that jug, that bucket, or that fire
hose that gets filled with the Holy Spirit and gets to have a front-row seat
when God fights the fire. Are you going to be a part of something big when God
invites you along to strike at the powers of darkness, or are you going to put
your feet up and watch TV?
Here’s part of one of
my favorite Bible stories from the Old Testament. When an enemy king and his
army tried to attack Israel, God spoke through the prophet Elisha to warn the
Israelite king, who was then able to effectively counter the enemy’s moves multiple
times. Naturally, this frustrated the enemy king, and he wanted to capture
Elisha to increase his chances of success. The most exciting part of the story is
the perspective of Elisha’s servant:
One
of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in
Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” So
he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.” And it was
told him, saying, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” He sent horses and chariots and a
great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and
gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And
his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered,
“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened
the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire all around Elisha.
-2 Kings 6:12-17
There’s more going on
than what you can see. You’re smack dab in the middle of a war. While it’s very
important to have a sober respect for the enemy’s power, don’t be put off by a
show of force. Ask that God “fill this vessel,” and that you have the boldness
to live out your faith and your calling. When you do, there’s no telling how
God will use you to fight the enemy’s fire.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. -1 John 4:4
We’ve got a fireplace
at home, and we like having fires once it gets cold. Buying or collecting wood
for the fireplace can be a hassle though, and this year we happened upon a
different solution. Earlier this summer a nearby neighborhood cut down a lot of
trees and sliced the trunks into slabs, leaving them to rot throughout the
neighborhood. I actually enjoy splitting wood by hand (especially after
aggravating days at work), so I went and picked up a bunch of them and brought
them home for splitting and burning.
The problem is that I
don’t have an efficient method of splitting the wood. Most people know what an
ax is, but not everyone knows what a maul is. A maul is kind of like a
sledgehammer with a wedge on one side. When I first started splitting wood
earlier this summer though, I didn’t have a full-sized maul. The one I have is
meant for splitting pieces of wood that have already been split, but are still
a bit too big for the fireplace. It’s kind of a hand-held “mini-maul.”
This tool is great for
splitting branches or small trunks that are, say, the diameter of a coffee-can.
Once you get into dealing with slabs of trunk though, it becomes much more
difficult.
I had a slab I was
determined to split up, but it was so big I couldn’t even put my arms around
it. Nonetheless, I put it on top of another piece and started looking at the
natural grain of the wood, then started taking shots at it. At first the
mini-maul just bounced off the wood. A few more shots, and each time the mini
maul bounced. Each time the tool struck the wood, though, it left a pock mark.
I started striking the slab in a way that the pock marks lined up to create a
fault line across it. I didn’t really feel like I was making much progress, so
I turned the slab and started doing the same thing in a different direction.
Then I did it in yet another direction.
I struck the wood over
and over and over again. Sometimes the tool bounced and other times it started
penetrating into the wood. I was out there for a long time. My hands got sore
and hot, like blisters were starting to form. I was tired, and eventually my
shirt was so soaked with sweat that it had almost no dry spots, and I thought
about packing it in. I must’ve left nearly a hundred pock marks before anything
began happening.
Finally, the sound of
the impact changed, and a crack emerged. When it did, it breathed new life into
my effort.
Once the crack was
established, it was easy to exploit into a split, and things moved quickly from
there. After splitting it in two, it only took a few shots to make additional
splits in one of the two sides. Those smaller chunks became infinitely easier
to break into the size I wanted, often in a single blow.
In the end, this little
tool was able to deliver enough targeted force to smash a strong, sturdy slab
of oak into about 35 splinters that were shadows of what they once were. All of them were done in by the
persistent strikes of a tool that was “too small” to do the job.
It’s an alarming spiritual
analogy for those things we do that we know we shouldn’t be doing. It might not
be anything major, but it happens again and again. Call it the straw that broke
the camel’s back, or call it death by a thousand paper cuts. It’s something
that doesn’t seem too bad, in and of
itself. It’s not a crushing blow, but it’s something that delivers targeted
strike after targeted strike against your Christian walk and, if it’s not
stopped, has the ability to cause major damage to your spiritual health and
relationships.
Maybe it’s gossip. It
could be reading a certain kind of novel. Maybe it’s a glance that lingers
longer than it should. Perhaps it’s tension in your marriage that goes
unresolved and festers. Doing these things a single time is not something
that’s devastating to your spiritual walk, but each of them is something that
leaves a pock mark. You may have even told yourself “it’s not a big deal, it
doesn’t hurt anybody.” Well, maybe doing it once isn’t a big deal, but have you
only done it once? Consider whether your pock marks are aligning in a way that
will lead to cracks and problems in the future, maybe soon.
Is there something
you’re doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing? If you’re wrapped up in
something that hinders your ministry or God-given purpose, even just a little
bit, it can affect your ability to make your maximum impact for Christ’s
kingdom. Like athletes that train hard to compete at a high level, cut yourself
off from things you know aren’t helping you. Don’t run for third place, or for second place; run to
win.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. –Hebrews 12:1-2
I demolished each of these pieces of wood using that mini maul. If you feel you’ve stripped the unneeded junk out of your life, how can you help the “other pieces of wood” around you to do the same, so that they can better resist the onslaught of strikes that hit them every day?
Ever feel like God’s
placed a burden on your heart, and it involves you doing something that you
have no business doing? (If so, you’re in good company…Abraham, Moses, Noah,
etc…)
“That’s absurd,” you
might say, so you brush off the idea. For some people that’s the end of it.
For others, the idea
lingers. You don’t outright shut the door on the possibility, but you might not
do anything to move toward the goal, either. So it hangs out there for months,
years, or even longer, just waiting until you allow other circumstances to kill
the idea or you begin to take more concrete actions to commit to, or achieve,
the goal.
Taking the perspective
of God’s opponents, what would be your attitude toward the people who seek to
fulfill these aspirations? As long as they’re not making any meaningful
efforts, you probably wouldn’t care; but what about when they start committing
to achieving those goals? That’s when you’d want their heads filled with
thoughts like “Who in the world do you think you are? You have no business
doing something like that! You’re not qualified in any way to even attempt to do something like that!”
You might feel
ill-equipped to perform God’s tasks. Good. You’re supposed to. My friends, that
is exactly what makes the idea so
full of potential as far as bringing God glory. By way of example, what
glorifies Him more…when a life-long highly skilled warrior defeats a giant
soldier, or when a shepherd boy defeats a giant soldier?
My schooling is in the
sciences and leadership. I took a basic writing course in college that was
mandatory for all students, and a few other workshops about writing for the
workplace. I barely know how to look someone up on social media. I’m no more qualified
to write a blog about God working through imperfect people than I am to host a
televised game show. When God placed the burden on my heart to start a blog
that spurs Christians on, you can imagine my skepticism.
Here’s the thing, though: obedience is our
responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. That’s very important, so I’ll say it again…obedience
is our responsibility, and outcome is God’s responsibility. If you’ve been
burdened with a task that you know is Heaven-sent, don’t fixate on all the
things that are going to need to be overcome. That’s God’s territory and is
beyond what you can see. The part you should focus on is taking action, even if
it means taking the first/next step without knowing the destination or what the
end goal looks like.
It’s now been a year since I started blogging on this site. This is my 84th post. Some posts touch on times of high adventure while others are more mundane and relate to an everyday kind of experience. With all of them I’ve tried to articulate some sort of life lesson that can be used to encourage you to allow God to use you for His glory more than He’s using you right now. I’d urge you to read the Purpose page that describes how the blog got its name. It’s all meant to help you take action when you recognize “you know, I think I know what he’s talking about. I feel like God’s nudging me to…” In the absence of a nudge, I want to encourage you to use whatever combination of spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has given to you. These gifts are to be employed for the very simple reason that God is glorified when His creation…you…does what it was made to do.
I want to help you live the life you were meant to live.
In closing, I want to
explain a little bit about how this website works. If there’s a particular
topic on this blog you’d like to read about, there are ways to sort through
previous posts. Almost every post belongs to two categories. One category
identifies the activity (whitewater, ropes, SERE Indoc, 2002 Winter Olympics,
etc.), and is meant to set the stage for the point I want to pass along. The
other category is the “moral of the story” (God can use you more than you think
He can, Hang in there, Don’t let fear hold you back, Growing in Trust and
Capability, etc.), and is the real purpose behind each story. You can see a
list of categories at https://daregreatlynow.com/home/.
Another method of
perusing the site’s posts is by using the same link to look through different
tags. Tags aren’t quite as organized as the categories, but they might help you
find what you’re looking for. They’re available at the same link.
I’d also love to hear
feedback from you. What do you like or not like about DareGreatlyNow? Do you
have any ideas that would make these posts easier to share or be available to
more people? Finally, do you feel like you’ve been given a burden that you know
you’re supposed to pursue, but you’re having a hard time coming to terms with
it? Sometimes it helps just to tell someone, even if you do it anonymously. Feel
free to comment on the page itself or email me at tim@daregreatlynow.com.
You were meant for great things, but you have to remember that you’re only a vessel. Let God be in charge. Be obedient to what He’s called you to do, and He’ll take care of the rest.
When I was in college I took classes in Outdoor Leadership, which included developing skills in both technical areas and in leading individuals and teams toward outcomes. One day our class was learning about how to properly set rope anchors for rock climbing. Obviously, it’s very important that your equipment catches you if you fall off a rock face, so our instructor was teaching us how to secure the safety rope to a number of anchors we had established at the top of the cliff.
The instructor, Kevin,
demonstrated a variety of ways to attach safety equipment to boulders and trees
at the top. He made a point to emphasize that we’d need to establish three
solid anchors before being able to proceed. “That way, if one of them
fails, you’ve still got two. Even if two of them fail, you’ll still have one
more.”
Of course, someone
asked the question. “What if this one goes, that one fails, and the other
one goes, too?”
Kevin looked at him, confused.
“You mean if all three of them
fail?”
“Yeah.”
“Then God wants
you dead.”
When you have a God-given
task laid out in front of you, it’s certainly a good thing to spend time planning
and preparing, but there comes a point where you’re prepared enough and it’s
time to get moving. Kevin didn’t want us to establish four anchors, or five.
Three was enough. The chances of all three anchors failing was so low that
setting more of them would have been a waste of time. If we spent time focusing
on more than three, that time took away from our actual reason for showing up
at the cliff that day.
It’s possible to take
so many safety precautions that it becomes too cumbersome to do anything. There
comes a point at which you are suitably prepared, reasonable precautions have
been taken, and you’re ready to leave the comfortable behind. The only thing
that remains is for you to take action.
By all means plan
effectively. Expect problems and make backup plans if necessary, but don’t let
perpetual planning stop you from getting started. If all the necessary pieces
are in place, it might be that you
are the only thing holding you back. What are you waiting for?
By the start of senior
year of college, most students are thinking about their last classes and life
beyond their degree. I was thinking about it being my last year to take
advantage of all the institution’s adventure sports programs.
I was into kayaking and
whitewater rafting at the time. Coming back to college at the end of summer
meant that the water in the local creeks and river was still warm. For
kayaking, that was nice, but it was also the time of year where the flow rate
was the lowest, so a lot of creeks and rivers were either too low or too slow
to be enjoyable. Thankfully, we had a solution for that.
Not far from the
college was a man-made lake with a concrete dam. The lake provided summer
boating opportunities for visitors and residents. Every year, about this time
in September, the dam operator dropped the lake’s water level roughly 10-15
feet to kill most of the shallow water algae over the winter. That way the
water in these areas the following spring and summer would stay clear of
excessive plant growth.
The faculty adviser for
the college’s paddle sports club, a guy named Tim, was in touch with the dam
operator. The operator was pretty cool about releasing the water in a time and
manner that Tim would request. If we wanted a longer, sustained flow, this guy
would accommodate us. If we wanted a bigger, shorter burst, he’d make it
happen. The two would agree on a schedule for when the release would begin, and
prior to that date’s arrival, Tim and a few other people would walk down
through the creek bed with chainsaws to clear potential obstacles. It was a custom-ordered
whitewater run!
I had only become
interested in kayaking the previous academic year. I’m not sure why, but I got
it into my head that I wanted to go over a drop in a kayak. A drop is just like
it sounds…it’s a sudden change in the elevation of the creek/river bed. It
could be a shelf that spans the whole width of the body of water you’re going
down, or maybe a formation where one side of the river has a big drop while the
other side has a more gradual slope. As it turns out, this run had a drop of
probably 4-5 feet right at the beginning…great for a first-time drop. When I
got the invite, this is the feature that sold me.
The day arrived and I
met up with a few other guys. One of them, a maintenance guy at the college,
was named Charlie. Charlie’s hobbies included woodworking and generally
“MacGyvering” things. He carved his own wooden kayak paddle. He also
fashioned a wooden bumper for his car when it needed to be replaced. His family
hosted a number of us for dinner once, and his kids showed off a system of pulleys
that allowed them to raise or lower their beds depending on whether they wanted
more floor space or to go to bed. Charlie was going to walk me through my first
drop.
We drove to the lake, geared up, and carried our boats down to the creek. We put in just downstream of the spillway, and the drop wasn’t far beyond. Charlie had walked me through the process a bit, laying out the mechanics of what needed to happen and the order in which they needed to happen. Much like I had learned years before, it was important to not reduce speed as you approach the drop.
Charlie was going to be
the first to do the drop, so I could see where to do it and how to approach it.
He worked out a signal with me before he went over the edge. A drop of 4 or 5
feet isn’t that much, but when you’re sitting in a boat that’s barely on top of
the water, your eyes are only about two feet off the surface, so it looked much
higher. After Charlie went over the edge, I wouldn’t be able to see him. Once
he was safely down and he was ready for me to proceed, he’d stick his paddle up
in the air and wave it back and forth, and that would be my “green light.”
Deciding that we were
both ready, he went for it. He started paddling and kept going, right up until
the bow of his boat dropped, his stern popped up out of the water, and he
disappeared over the edge. A few seconds followed, and then I saw one end of a hand-carved
wooden paddle stick up in the air and start waving around. It was my turn.
I went for it. I
started paddling, and got faster as I neared the shelf. As I slid over the
ledge, my boat’s bow dipped and for a fraction of a second I was in midair. The
bow then sliced deep into the water before the kayak’s buoyancy bounced it back
up to the surface. It was easier than I thought, and it was cool!
The thing that made this
part of the adventure so easy was that I had someone right there to walk me
through it. It was someone who had been through it before, who knew what to
expect, and was physically right there to help me in case I got into a jam. In
this situation, Charlie mentored me through the challenge successfully, and it
was much different than if I had been there by myself and decided to try it and
see what happened.
How about you? Do you
have a mentor that can help guide you through a situation that’s foreign and
scary to you? This life is full of unknowns, but it’s also full of people with
lots of experience that you don’t have. Don’t be afraid of taking a shortcut to
spare yourself some painful lessons by learning from others’ hard-won
experience.
Maybe you’re more like
Charlie. You’ve been around the block a few times. You see someone who’s
enthusiastic but inexperienced, and it looks like they’re in an awfully big
hurry to get themselves hurt or stuck in a bad situation. Why not see if
they’re willing to allow you to help channel that enthusiasm into something
productive? Don’t do it because you think it’ll make you look good; do it
because you can help them.
There was a lake not
too far away from the college I attended. Some of the college’s classes either
took place on the lake or took field trips here. I did some canoeing on the
lake for one of the Outdoor Leadership Training courses. The college offered waterskiing
during the first half of the fall semester, too.
I don’t remember what
course it was; it must have been some kind of Biology or Ecology class that
brought us to the Lake one September day. Our class was going to use the same
speedboat that the college used for waterskiing to go out into the lake and take
water samples at various depths.
There were too many
students in the class to bring out in the boat all at once, so we split into
two or three groups that took turns heading out to the middle of the lake. The
driver, a student named Laura, spent a few minutes driving out to deeper water,
a few minutes taking samples, a few minutes joyriding, and a few minutes
heading back to the dock to switch out students.
I was in the last group
of students to head out on the lake. In order to make room for more students,
the professor stayed behind on the dock while the rest of us rode off to the
middle of the lake. As we sped along, I looked around the boat. It was very
similar to the one I had driven for a few summers and had enjoyed going
kneeboarding behind. As providence would have it, on the floor of the boat sat
a lifejacket, a kneeboard, and a ski rope.
We started collecting
our samples or doing whatever experiments we were supposed to do. I wanted to
say something about wanting to give kneeboarding a try, but thought it would be
too crazy. As we wrapped up our tasks on the lake, I couldn’t help myself any
longer. I forget how I did it, but I asked Laura if she’d be open to letting me
jump in the lake to go kneeboarding. To my great surprise, she said
“sure.”
I didn’t ask any other
questions. I lost the shirt/shoes/socks, emptied my pockets, donned the life
jacket, grabbed the board and rope, and jumped into the water. It was cold, but
I didn’t care. We got lined up, Laura hit it, and we were off to the races. The
water was a lot choppier from the wind than I was used to, but I was kneeboardingin a science class.
We were far enough away
from the dock, or maybe around a bend in the lake so that the professor and my
classmates on land couldn’t see us. We didn’t want to goof off too long and get
in trouble, so after a bit of tooling around, Laura stopped the boat and I
climbed back in. We stowed everything and headed back to shore. Come to think
of it, I don’t think anyone on shore even knew what we’d done.
There will be key moments in your life where you only
have a single opportunity to seize the chance to do something you want to do. There’ll
be times when it simply will not happen unless you step out and make it happen.
If you hem and haw, you’ll be stuck watching as the opportunity passes you by.
You might have to
abandon the norms you’re accustomed to. I didn’t even have swim trunks, but
when Laura said she was open to my request, I was in the water with no
questions asked, wearing whatever clothes I already had on.
Many times in this blog
I’ve written that God will place opportunities in your path to do something
great. I’ll use this post to clarify: He will place the opportunity for you to
do something great just off your path.
God loves the timid, but He also has a special place in His heart for the bold.
If there’s something big, bold, and brash that you feel called to do on Christ’s behalf…don’t sit on it. God might bring an opportunity near your orbit, but you’re going to have to pursue that chance…you’ll need to run after it and chase it down. If you feel called to make it happen, live with abandon. You might even have to jump into the cold water with your regular clothes on.
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Once I finished
college, I didn’t do anything related to my academic major. I needed a job, but
didn’t have anything professional in mind, so I moved back in with Mom and Dad
and worked construction.
Since I had worked
construction the past few summers, nothing felt different initially. Doing the
job as a college grad didn’t feel any different than doing the job the previous
summer. It didn’t really seem strange until the end of the summer, when I
ordinarily would have prepared to head back to school. To help mark the
occasion of our entry into the “real world,” a college buddy and I decided to
go skydiving.
We made some
reservations, then showed up at the airport one Saturday morning early in
September. We signed the waivers, took the short class, then waited our turn.
We signed up for tandem
jumps. That’s where you’re connected to an experienced jumper that’s trained to
do two-person jumps. You don’t have to focus on any of the flight plan, what
your altitude is, etc. All you have to do is go along for the ride and enjoy
yourself. My tandem instructor was Frank. He took us over to the tiny plane
we’d use and walked us through the steps we’d later take when exiting the
aircraft. After that we squeezed into the plane, took off, and started the
climb to 10,000 feet.
(I paid extra to have my jump recorded, so there was a jumper with a camera and video camera on her helmet that went along. Unfortunately I don’t have a digital copy; it’s still on VHS format, so I can’t show it here. I can share some of the pictures though.)
There were six jumpers
and a pilot crammed into a little Cessna. As we reached 3,000 feet, the door
opened and one of the guys jumped out. I’m not sure if I was aware of this at
the time or not, but it turns out this man was Don Kellner, who was (and still
is) the world record holder for the number of sport parachute jumps. At the
time, he had about 30,000 jumps or something ridiculous like that. In order to set
and build on his record, he’d be on just about every plane that went up, and
most of the time he’d hop out around 3,000 feet. He’d skip the freefall and
deploy his parachute right away. They called this type of jump a “hop ‘n pop.”
I didn’t see it coming, so all I knew was that the door blew open without
warning and a guy fell out.
The rest of the climb
to altitude was uneventful. It was my buddy and I, our two tandem instructors,
and a videographer. They kept the mood light by making plenty of jokes, so that
we’d stay loose and not seize up when the door opened and we stuck our heads
outside the plane and looked down.
The time finally
arrived. We shuffled around inside the plane to get connected to the
instructors. We went over a few last-minute things, gave a final thumbs-up, and
then they opened the door.
Inside the plane it got
windy and much cooler than it had been on the ground. We inched up to the
doorway, and the videographer actually climbed outside the plane and hung from
the wing strut while she waited for us to exit. Frank shouted in my ear, I did
what he had showed me on the ground earlier, and out the door we went.
This is the only part that feels like you’re falling
There’s really not a
good way to convey what it’s like to freefall. It’s unlike anything else. There
was only a brief fraction of a second where there was any falling sensation,
and that was as you fell out of the plane. The ground didn’t seem like it was
rushing up at me at all. It was just windy, loud, and amazing. You can judge
for yourself just how miserable I was.
We fell for about 30
seconds, reaching a max speed of around 120 mph. It didn’t feel that fast,
because there were no references other than people falling at the same speed
(it’s not like you fell past a bird or a hot air balloon at 120 mph, for
example). It was smooth. The video shows that Frank and I did some goofy stuff
and made weird faces (imagine what kind of silly stuff you’d do if someone
pointed a leaf blower at your face). Then Frank deployed the main chute, and after
the rapid deceleration the loud rush of air gave way to a gentle breeze and
relative silence as we slowed down to about 20 mph. He then gave me an aerial
tour of the surrounding area as we continued our descent. Five minutes later we
were safely on the ground, and I was ready to do it all again.
I fell over a mile and a half straight down and lived to tell the tale
I was hooked.
Eventually I went back and did it again, and I’ll share more skydiving stories
in the future, but for now here’s what’s important. When you jump out of a
plane, there’s no doing it halfway. There’s no way to stay in the plane and at
the same time experience what it’s like to leave it midair. You either leave
the plane or you don’t, and the two outcomes are vastly different.
Despite what many
people seem to think, access to Heaven is based on an either/or criterion: you
either have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, or you don’t. Here too,
the two outcomes are vastly different. If you don’t have that relationship,
you’re not going to get into Heaven.
“That’s incredibly
intolerant!” It’s okay to think that, because it is. I serve an intolerant God.
For some reason that seems to shock people. God doesn’t tolerate our antics and
rationalizations. I can’t really blame
Him. Why should He? Imagine you had a child that wanted nothing to do with you,
yet demanded all the benefits of being associated with you. On top of that,
they replace you with someone else and still want the rights and privileges of
being your child. How tolerant would you be?
These days there seems
to be very little in terms of pure black and white. Just because the world
looks at things with a “everything is relative” mindset however, doesn’t make
it true or mean we get to water down God’s truth. There ARE absolutes. One of them is that the only
way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ.
People will decry this
view as having a lack of inclusivity. I’d counter that Christ was one of the
most inclusive historical figures ever.
He went out of His way to reach the dregs of society; He violated cultural
norms by empowering and addressing women directly; and He advocated for fair treatment
of foreigners.
The difference is that
Christ wanted all people to hear the truth so they could make their own
decision. He wanted everybody to have access to this information regardless of
their background or standing. What they did with it was entirely up to them,
but He wanted everyone in the world to know that the only way to God (and
Heaven) was through Him.
You either have that
saving relationship or you don’t. There’s no doing it halfway, and there’s no
middle ground. The good…no…the great
news is that you’re welcome to start that saving relationship right now. Even
if you think you’re beyond saving or that you’ve done things that are too
terrible to be forgiven, He won’t turn you away.
Maybe you’ve never
prayed before, but if you’re open to this, pray this prayer along with me:
Dear Jesus…thank you so
much for loving me even when I don’t deserve you at all. Lord, come into my
life, change me, break me, make me new, make me whole…forgive me. Purify my
heart. Jesus I believe you died on the cross and rose again three days later.
You are my savior and one day I will live with You forever. But meanwhile, help
me to stand for you. To shine for you, to make a difference and let your truth
be known. Use me Lord, Holy Spirit fill me to overflowing. I love you so much!
In Jesus’ name, amen.
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