This is Crazy! This is Awesome!

I enjoy reading Bible stories that start out “This is crazy” but end up “This is awesome”. For example, a little shepherd boy with a mere sling and stones, going up against a giant Philistine — wearing the toughest, rock-solid armor ever must have been a “This is crazy” moment, but we know how it ended. The headlines in the morning news: “Notorious Philistine Taken Down by a Shepherd Boy” — “This is Awesome!”

What about Moses leading millions out of Egypt and facing the Red Sea, along with Pharoah’s army in hot pursuit. “This is crazy”. If we could have read Moses’ thoughts, I wonder if they had been “This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!” The headlines on that day must have read: “Millions walk through the Red Sea unharmed. Pharoah’s entire military loses lives in the waters of the Red Sea.” “This is awesome!” I remember hearing about an agnostic who said: “The only reason the Israelites were able to cross that sea was because that time of year the waters were only one foot deep.” And the reply by a believer was “WOW! That’s awesome then, Pharoah’s army drowned in only one foot of water!” LOL!

Have you had some “This is crazy” moments that turned into “This is awesome” moments? I did. When my husband convinced me to take flying lessons and the day my instructor got out of the airplane and said, “You’re ready. Go on and do three take-offs and landings…..alone!” In flying, a pilot’s First Solo is a huge milestone. After hours of training and ground study, you finally take to the air on your own. I thought “WHAT? This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!!” But as I was all alone in the sky, I actually felt quite comfortable — I started thinking “This is awesome, this is awesome, this is awesome.”

I went on to succeed at my first solo flight. And I had the ripped shirt to prove it. In-line with tradition, my instructor cut up the back of my shirt. Before modern electronics, in-cockpit communication was mainly through shirt tugging and hollers from the instructor that sat behind you. Cutting off the back of the shirt symbolizes this very important step — as the instructor won’t need to be yanking on it any more. At the end of that thrill-ride, I shouted “THAT WAS AWESOME.” On the other hand, my husband was mush. He said that he couldn’t believe it when he saw my instructor get out of the plane and his wife take to the skies…..ALONE! He admitted he had never been so nervous in all his life! For me, it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

So it was a no brainer for me to be strapped into the safety harness when we were in Mexico a couple of weeks ago, and go parasailing. The same for jet skiing. I’ve learned that if we aren’t willing to put ourselves in some “This is crazy” situations, we’ll never experience “This is awesome” moments. If we aren’t willing to run a marathon or parasail or ride a camel (I did in Israel) or give a speech before a large audience or start a business or ride a roller coaster, we’ll never fly above circumstances of life that tend to keep us grounded in fear. By the way — all those crazy things we may do sure makes for above-average prayer life. We can’t NOT pray when we are flying solo in an airplane. And the same is true when we take a leap of faith in anything we hope to accomplish!

At some point in our lives, there comes a time when we have to make a decision. We need to decide to go for it (take a leap of faith) or to be complacent. I want to live with child-like faith in my all powerful Father. I wanna’ live like that!