Freefall

You may have seen the coverage at the weekend of Felix Baumgartner’s record breaking speed of sound busting freefall from the edge of space to earth. It was pretty incredible to watch, and must have taken extreme courage and faith in his parachute and his team’s calculations to take that step out of his capsule and into the air at a height of 128,100 feet.
It got me thinking that maybe God wants something similar from us. He wants us to take leaps of faith for Him. He wants us to step out of the capsule of safety and freefall, having faith that He will provide. Having faith that He will protect us. Having faith that He will cause things to work out.Hebrews tells us that faith is “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” – Hebrews 11:1. When Felix jumped, no-one had ever jumped from that height before. There was no guarantee that he would be able to survive a freefall from that height. He jumped in that faith that his body suit would protect him and his parachute would deploy to allow him to land safely. God wants us to jump into the unknown for Him. It is in the unknown that we find Jesus. When you look through the Gospels so often when people encountered Jesus it wasn’t in the safety and comfort of a synagogue, but in the unknown. At a Samaritan well. At a tax collector’s party. Eating with prostitutes. Walking on the water. In the unknown. In the leap of faith for His followers.
So often we like things planned out and organised. We want to have everything under control. We want to know that our plans will work. We want a safety net. But maybe today God’s message for us is just simply “Jump.” Have faith and jump. Trust in Him and jump. Take risks for the sake of the gospel. Maybe we should be trying harder to live in such a way that if the Holy Spirit doesn’t come through for us we are going to be in major trouble. Because so often we don’t need God to come through for us. We don’t need Him to provide for us for we don’t take risks. We don’t go beyond what we think is achievable. We forget that “nothing is impossible with God” Luke 1:37.
Today look out from your comfort zone. Look to see where God may be calling you. Look to what He might be calling you to. Don’t get caught up with worry about how things are going to work out, but jump in faith that our God is the God who provides, that our God does not call the equipped but equips the called and  He promises to cause all things to work for the good of those who love Him and are called by Him. Jump in faith today, and leave safety behind. Freefall in God’s grace into the unknown, where Jesus is.

[Felix after he jumped – source: http://www.redbullstratos.com/gallery/]