A Year Ago Today...

Everything looks different from 13,500 feet

The horizon was breathtaking. Everything was just crystal clear. You could see for miles upon miles away. Everything was peaceful and serene. Life seemed to just float by so effortlessly. Life at 13,500 feet, looks amazing.

Until they open the airplane doors and your next in line to jump! That when everything changes...

The horizon is gone. All you see is the ground. A terrifying reminder of what awaits to catch you if things go wrong. Crystal clear becomes a blur of wind and sounds. It's cold. Like the hand of death slowing running it's finger up your spine. You trade peaceful and serene for tempestuous and angry. Life at 13,500 feet, is scary.

Yet with all this, the one thing I remember most of my entire jump was the 2 seconds before we dove from the plane. For two seconds I was between safety and dicey. In those two seconds, I think I learned more about God than in any other two seconds of my life. I remember specifically praying this one prayer. I said, "Lord, if this is the end of my line, I pray I wake up to find you holding me. If this isn't the end of my line, I pray I can look back on this day and see your hand in it. Lord, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I never got that last line out. We jumped.

Looking back though, I did see God's hand in all of it. I learned that sometimes our life can be a lot like skydiving. God leads us to places in our life where we either stay in the safety of where He has brought us. Something that is comfortable and routine or we take that next step or leap of faith, into the unknown. If God brings you to it, He'll see you through it. (Many thanks to Brother Ron for that line) It's in those leaps of faith where God really begins to stretch us, to mold us, into the person He has created us to be.

Looking back, the jump was the hardest part. But once I took my leap from the plane, that was when the fun really began! When you jump with Jesus, you can't go wrong.

Carlos