There was one magic week this summer where no one in our family had a conflict so before my daughter heads off to college this fall, we decided to take a family vacation to a somewhat exotic location. After doing some exhaustive research (that is, Googling “fun places for family vacations with teen children”), Aruba popped up as a possibility. And to Aruba we went last month.
On one of the days, we took an off-road Jeep tour of this desert island and the tour made an unscheduled stop at a small but beautiful beach. One of the options was to do some cliff diving, albeit much, much, much smaller than the cliff-diving professionals. This was more of a running leap off a ledge that was 15 feet above the water, so not too terribly scary, but there’s a bit more of the unknown compared to jumping off a diving board into a swimming pool.
Each of my family members leapt/dove into the blue waters of the Caribbean and as we were treading water, we noticed another woman who was about to take her turn. Except she wasn’t. She would gingerly run up to the edge and then stop, put her hands on her face, turn around and try it again. She did this two or three times and a few people were watching her and giving her some encouragement, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she did something else.
I continued to watch her as she walked to a different entry point into the water. She had to climb down some somewhat precarious stairs (allowing others to give her some support while doing so), but she made it and joyously made her way into the waters.
Preachers are always looking for illustrations so this whole scenario was made for a conversation about taking leaps of faith and how it’s not always easy to do so. But that wasn’t the leap that she wanted. It was the water. She was determined to get into the water.
Leaps of faith come in all shapes and sizes. We dramatize and lift up the risky ones, but we tend to overlook the other ways that people take to the waters. Jesus said, “All who are thirsty should come to me! All who believe in me should drink!” He didn’t say that there was one way to get to the water. What is your way? If it’s different than what seems to be the norm, you’re in good company.