Parachutes + White Lies
I read something this morning, that stopped me in my tracks...
I've been trying to find ways recently to connect with God. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't always come packaged in an easy to read devotional guide or a book by a best selling author. I've found that for me, I connect far more with God through communication and time spent together and seeking out a relationship with Him in the ways that He made me.
However, I have also been reading Bob Goff's new book recently, because I thought it would be a great catalyst, and basically, it's teaching me how to love people better. This guy has a way of telling stories that makes the world make sense. This morning I was reading a story about him learning to skydive. He talks about what they teach you in class to prepare you as you're coming down in the freefall, even if everything doesn't go completely as planned. I thought this was not only a great lesson for skydiving but in life...
"One of the things they teach you feels counterintuitive. The parachute is connected to your harness by hundreds of small strings. When it opens, you're supposed to look up and see if all the strings are where they're supposed to be. If there is just one string caught over the top of the parachute, they tell you to cut away the entire parachute, start free-falling again, then pull the emergency chute. I remember thinking, 'Are you kidding me? There's no way I'm cutting away an almost perfect parachute because one small string out of hundreds of them is out of place. It's good enough, right?' Here's the problem. If even one string is over the top, then the parachute will look like it's fine while you're up in the air, but you'll never be able to land it. You won't realize this until you get close to the ground and hit hard. The same is true with our lives."
I think the same is totally true with our lives, and to me, this spoke directly to me about sin. I think we have these sins in our lives that we tuck in close and cuddle up to each night. Sometimes they are like a slow nagging cry, but more often than not, we try to pull them in close and act like they're not there. I mean, It's one of a hundred of small strings, how bad could it be?! But that one string is precisely the one that has the power to bring us crashing to the ground.
Now I've never had the guts to jump out of an airplane without someone else in charge of pulling the chute. I don't trust myself enough to not get up there and freak out. And honestly, that's kind of like life for me too. I feel like God is this co-pilot jumping out of the plane with me and telling me again and again, 'that string is tangled, it's gonna make you crash.' And more often than not, I think we'd rather wait until we crash totally to the ground than stop the thing that we are doing that may make us crash and burn. I've seen it more often than not and I've felt this in my own life. The reality is though, sometimes the crash truly can kill us.
I HATE those moments in my life when I feel like God is telling me to cut the chute of something that I love or want to hold onto. It literally feels like I am cutting off something from my life that will die. And I am. But the reality is, often times it is to save our own lives.
I believe that God loves us. I believe that He Loved creating each one of us. That's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. And I believe that if there is something that He is burdening our hearts to step away from, it's not because He wants to hurt us, it's because He wants to save us. It's up to us to believe Him enough to cut the chute in the middle of the freefall.
I've been trying to find ways recently to connect with God. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't always come packaged in an easy to read devotional guide or a book by a best selling author. I've found that for me, I connect far more with God through communication and time spent together and seeking out a relationship with Him in the ways that He made me.
However, I have also been reading Bob Goff's new book recently, because I thought it would be a great catalyst, and basically, it's teaching me how to love people better. This guy has a way of telling stories that makes the world make sense. This morning I was reading a story about him learning to skydive. He talks about what they teach you in class to prepare you as you're coming down in the freefall, even if everything doesn't go completely as planned. I thought this was not only a great lesson for skydiving but in life...
"One of the things they teach you feels counterintuitive. The parachute is connected to your harness by hundreds of small strings. When it opens, you're supposed to look up and see if all the strings are where they're supposed to be. If there is just one string caught over the top of the parachute, they tell you to cut away the entire parachute, start free-falling again, then pull the emergency chute. I remember thinking, 'Are you kidding me? There's no way I'm cutting away an almost perfect parachute because one small string out of hundreds of them is out of place. It's good enough, right?' Here's the problem. If even one string is over the top, then the parachute will look like it's fine while you're up in the air, but you'll never be able to land it. You won't realize this until you get close to the ground and hit hard. The same is true with our lives."
I think the same is totally true with our lives, and to me, this spoke directly to me about sin. I think we have these sins in our lives that we tuck in close and cuddle up to each night. Sometimes they are like a slow nagging cry, but more often than not, we try to pull them in close and act like they're not there. I mean, It's one of a hundred of small strings, how bad could it be?! But that one string is precisely the one that has the power to bring us crashing to the ground.
Now I've never had the guts to jump out of an airplane without someone else in charge of pulling the chute. I don't trust myself enough to not get up there and freak out. And honestly, that's kind of like life for me too. I feel like God is this co-pilot jumping out of the plane with me and telling me again and again, 'that string is tangled, it's gonna make you crash.' And more often than not, I think we'd rather wait until we crash totally to the ground than stop the thing that we are doing that may make us crash and burn. I've seen it more often than not and I've felt this in my own life. The reality is though, sometimes the crash truly can kill us.I HATE those moments in my life when I feel like God is telling me to cut the chute of something that I love or want to hold onto. It literally feels like I am cutting off something from my life that will die. And I am. But the reality is, often times it is to save our own lives.
I believe that God loves us. I believe that He Loved creating each one of us. That's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately. And I believe that if there is something that He is burdening our hearts to step away from, it's not because He wants to hurt us, it's because He wants to save us. It's up to us to believe Him enough to cut the chute in the middle of the freefall.
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