“I do believe I can do it Dad,
Help me to see what you see in me.”
Eli is a little wild man, no fear in his body at all, doing things that would make a lot of others cringe. Snowboarding full speed ahead, climbing on things that are riskier than he should be climbing on, being thrown in the air way higher than he should be, you name it or kid will try it. He must get that from mommy. (To be honest there are moments where I will hear others say, “hopefully your mommy didn’t see that” even though she is usually standing right there.) The craziest thing he probably is doing right now though is jumping off of things. When I say jumping I mean totally launching himself to the point he is horizontal to the ground. We have had moments in our house where he will be at the top of the stairs, will look at Linds about 4-5 steps down, and he will just shout, “Ready?” At that moment he turns around, starts running and gets a full head of steam going and then launches himself into her arms. He has a complete trust that she is going to catch him. His fear he might have in the moment is wiped out because he knows his mommy is right there. Now there have also been times where he will launch himself over our heads off the couch or jump off the bar in the kitchen where we haven’t been ready. Luckily, to this point he hasn’t taking a total spill (knock on wood) and we have caught him. How is our kid so fearless? He has a trust that mommy and daddy are going to get him. When he is snowboarding, he knows if he gets out of control, I will come behind him and pick him up. He knows while climbing that if he gets to a point of being stuck, that we will get him down. He has this unwavering trust in us.
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What if we had that type of faith in God? A complete unwavering trust in Him that when he says to jump, we would launch ourselves into his arms. What if when Jesus said to walk to him on the water, instead of trying to figure out how it is going to happen we just jumped out. What if we had that type of trust that when God’s calls us to do something we just go.
Now I have to clarify something here. This type of trust that our kid has in us is because he has learned it. I may have been the one to teach him to jump off the bar. Teaching him to count to three and then saying, “Ready, Set, and Go.” He didn’t just start jumping the first time we told him to. He had fears, and would shake his head no. Yet he learned and came to understand that we had him and were not going to let anything happen. It is a learned trust, from experience.
I believe completely that God is the same way with us, teaching in life that we can trust Him. Allowing us to go through moments that we have to learn what it means to jump. Sometimes this might mean going through times that we look back on and know that the only way we were able to get through was that God carried us. Other times it might mean literally having to trust God so much that without Him coming through you are going to fail and hit the ground.
Think with me real quick about a little child jumping into the swimming pool, scared out of his mind, except for the fact that his dad is in the water saying, “I got you my child.”
“But dad, it’s scary, it’s unknown, what if something happens?”
“My child, I got you.” The child jumps. Dad catches him, and tells him to do it again, this time higher.
”Dad I’m scared.” The boy cries out again
“Did I catch you last time?” Laughs his dad
“Yes” The boy chimes in
“Then trust me that I will do it again” reassures his father
The boy in this story overtime learns to trust his father and allow his fears to subside. What is it in life that is causing you to have fear even though you have seen God come through time and time again, saying jump, “I got you.”
“If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Mark 9:23-24 NIV
This is truly one of my favorite passages in Scripture, but at the same time probably one of the scariest. You might look at it and wonder what I mean about it being scary. Let me explain. “If you can” is like saying, “Jesus will you catch me?” It is scary because it is the unknown. The what if’s start playing in our minds and causing us to doubt. We. have to get to that spot of trusting, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” Or we can just keep standing on the diving board looking at the water below. We can just keep staying in the boat going it is scary out there. To walk on water, you gotta get out of the boat. I do believe Jesus, I do believe, Help me overcome my fears.
Eli has learned to jump because he has learned to trust us. What is God calling you to jump to today? His arms are open, his voice is calling, My child I got you.