trampolines and skydiving

My fault in blogging is my long windedness. I never had a problem reaching the minimum word counts for analytical papers in high school or in college, always enjoyed writing the papers, but I do admit to being a bit of a procrastinator (the majority of my papers were written within a few days -or hours- of the dead line). The problem with blogging is that even though I love to write, there’s no deadline, so several half written blogs sit in lonely word documents that I simply never got around to finishing…

All that to say, today I was reminded about Skydiving from the book I am reading and really wanted to blog about it so here it goes (please and thank you for bearing with my wordyness!) The book is Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. Although I read it some years ago, Bell explains in his book that just like “we instinctively understand that art has to, in some way, keep going… keep bringing new perspectives” so it is with Christians. No one person figured faith out. Rather we are all “exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other… Times change. God doesn’t... We learn and grow and the world around us shifts, and the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, morphing, innovating. Letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more the people God wants us to be.” (10-11). God and the ways He is described in this book have not changed since I last read it, but I have. And though others may have discovered and re-discovered the truths many times before, what I am learning from this book now is new to me because I have grown and experienced new things. For example, I had not been skydiving the first time I read this book, but now that experience helped me learn in a new way (more on that later).

Bell describes a trampoline as a symbol for the Christian walk. The “statements and beliefs about our faith” are represented by the necessary springs which can stretch and bend and be seen in new perspective (22). The bricks of a brick wall do not accurately symbolize the doctrines of our faith for if a brick changes shape or grows, it no longer is a useful part of the wall. Furthermore, a wall divides and encourages a defensive standpoint; but a trampoline is about community, and about enjoyment. However, if I spend my entire time on the trampoline clutching the edge, examining the springs to see if they will hold, I have missed the joyful taste of flying that a trampoline offers. Bell says, “Jesus invites everybody to jump… the invitation to jump is an invitation to follow Jesus with all of our doubts and questions right there with us” (28). But sometimes in life I have found that God has answered my questions right before tossing me into the sky to test whether I have really learned what I think I have. This to me is like skydiving. For a personal example, on the upswing of an eating disorder, I felt like I was falling through thin air as struggled both to remember what I learned but God had prepared me to be open to share my story with two friends who I saw spiraling into the same patterns from which I was still learning to accept freedom.

In skydiving, you cannot be worried about the parachute the whole flight up and dive down. If you are, there is no joy in the experience. To be sure, there is a time and place for learning and checking, re-learning and re-checking, for doubts and questions, and for using accountability and caution all to protect us and prepare us for the road ahead. But once it is time for a journey, you are free to climb, to fly, to share the joy of discovery and adventure with those you are with. Then, when the time comes, to risk, to jump, to fall, to experience, to smile, to test, to trust, to watch, and to be thankful. And to invite others to join. But the importance of those times of learning, the times on the ground, cannot be overlooked. I love adventure and but as I learn to be intentional with the time God gives me to rest and to prepare, I have experienced that the preparation is just as wonderful as the jump. With each step, anticipation grows. I learn to keep my eyes open to watch for the way God acts and the glimpses of His ever present beauty and grace and love. I could try to describe more how I see Him, but as Rob Bell says, “this is something people have struggled with since the beginning: how to talk about God when God is bigger than our words, our brains, our worldviews, and our imaginations.” (23).

And because the song fits where I am right now, this is a song called “who you are” written by the wonderful college minister at my home church. (he has written many other honest, beautiful songs that have impacted my life. sadly, not near enough of them are recorded but you can look some of his songs up on iTunes under Robby Higginbottom and Empty Handful!)

“WHO YOU ARE”

Bigger than our thoughts, Higher than our sweetest dreams can soar

You are that and even more

Words cannot describe, The wonder of a King who stooped so low

Who left His throne that we might know

Who you are.

Infinite the gap, between the God reflected in our days

And the Glory we were made to praise

Cleverly deceived, eyes you made to glimpse reality

When focused on ourselves will never see

Who you are.

You say “I am who I am”,

You’re the Lion and the Lamb

Lord of Heaven and of Earth

Infinite in Worth

You are Word becoming flesh

Conqueror of death

God of Wrath and God of Love

Reigning over us

May our lives go far,

In showing who you are

We want to love the truth, we want to long for you

In you we finally see our identity