When my little girl, Juliana was at Camp Lurecrest last year she told me about the rope swing. She absolutely loved it, but regretted missing the first full day on it. She wasn’t allowed to continue because she was too frightened to jump on 3! Well, turns out they will give you a few chances, but you can’t wait there forever—by the time she was ready for college she still wasn’t ready to jump—so they made her climb back down the humiliating steps to safety. She told me she was so embarrassed and immediately felt the urge to do it right—alas, they weren’t buying it. Her time had past and she would have to wait for another day when her cabin would be back to do the rope swing again.
She was in luck—they returned a few days later and this time there was no hesitation whatsoever—bottom-line? She went on it a gazillion times in a row and said it was the most fun thing on the planet—period!
Well, I don’t know if that’s the case, but a rope swing is pretty fun! And I’m glad that Juliana learned a valuable little lesson as well. Some of the best things in life require a leap of faith—a risk or 2. But they are usually worth it. No one ever became great by barricading themselves in their home and refusing to venture out into the big bad world.
Are there things that can hurt you out there? Sure there are. But to me, none of them are quite so scary as a life wasted playing it too safe.
The Bible is full of examples of people going against the grain, contrary to their fears, against public opinion, or doing something illogical in order to do something great for God—or experience something great from God. One such incident that I just re-read was when Jesus was leaving the town of Jericho one day with a great multitude of people trailing after Him looking for a miracle. As he passed by the blind man, Bartimaeous, Luke tells us that Bart inquired as to what all the commotion was about. When he was told that Jesus was passing by he went nuts,
“Jesus, over here! Over here! Thou Son of David don’t pass me by! Please help me!!”
Well, that’s my version of it anyway. But the crowd was not to keen on this loud mouth—everyone was telling him to ‘zip it!’
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“Show some respect, will ya?!
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“Leave Him (Jesus) alone!”
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“There are important people who need to see Jesus. What would He want with you?!”
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“Someone shut him up, please!”
But the blind Bartimeous wasn’t having any of it. He just shouted all the more.
Result?
Jesus healed him.
I bet he didn’t spend much time that night wondering if he’d done the right thing! What do you think?
Nah.
If you see a chance to chase down Jesus, take it!