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.
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 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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