Introspection: Skydiving with God

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Skydiving with God

Scripture:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Sometimes it's hard to just keep going
But faith is moving without knowing
Can I trust what I can't see
To reach my destiny?
I want to take control but I know better

From "Unbreakable" by Fireflight

I was driving down the road today, contemplating my current situation, and I found myself wishing that there was more certainty in my life. I want to be certain that I will enjoy my next job. I want to be certain that I will someday find my true calling. I want to be certain that I will find happiness in this life. At that moment I remembered a quote by Anne Lamott: "The opposite of faith is not doubt: it is certainty." It then occurred to me that perhaps my problem is not a need for certainty, but a lack of faith.

Some people think of their faith like an insurance policy. If they agree to the terms of the policy by believing all the right things and sign their name on the policy by praying the "Sinner's Prayer," they know that when they die they will go to heaven and not hell. I am not trying to trivialize Salvation. I believe that, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he took the punishment for all our sins, and that trusting Him with our eternal destiny is important. I also believe that faith means much more than just escaping hell when we die.

I have come to believe that true faith is less like buying insurance and more like jumping out of an airplane. I have never been skydiving, nor am I the type of person who would ever try it. I do know that those who do go skydiving put a lot of faith in their parachutes. In fact, skydiving means betting your life that your chute will open. It means depending on your parachute to see you safely to the ground.

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews defined faith as "the assurance of things hoped for" and "the conviction of things not seen." We cannot literally see, hear, or touch God. Furthermore, we have no way of knowing what the future has in store for us. This is why we need faith. Faith is following God in spite of the uncertainty and in spite of the lack of physical evidence. Faith is jumping out into life with God as our parachute, depending on Him to see us safely through.

Having faith does not mean that one never has doubts or that one never feels afraid. Perhaps you are scared to jump out of the plane. Perhaps you even have doubts that your chute will open. Faith is jumping out of the plane when God calls us to jump, in spite of our fears and doubts.

In my case, faith means jumping out into the future, trusing in God to open the doors I need to step through, to close the doors I need to avoid, and to lead me to where I need to go.