A Matter of Trust (cont.)

This is a little thought about my dad's post, A Matter of Trust. During Spring Break, I went skydiving with my dad, two of my best friends from high school (Alyssa and Danielle), and my Tía Ivette. It really was a great experience! Every time I thought about the fast approaching adventure, I felt no emotion. I knew that I should have been nervous, scared, or at least excited... but I did not feel anything. I think deep down (even though I wanted to go SO bad) I thought that something would happen and it would fall through. I figured I would get nervous when it was closer. Well the night before the big jump... I still was not nervous! It did cross my mind... what if something went wrong? I knew that was so ridiculous, I mean people die WAY more in car accidents than skydiving! Right? After a few minutes of making sure I was not crazy for doing this, I got a sense of peace and went back to bed. I did not get nervous when we got in plane. It kind of hit me the two seconds before and after I jumped out of the plane... other than that it was just a GREAT experience.

Spiritually, I got two things out of this experience.

It was my first time skydiving, I did not know what to expect. I did not even know where the rope for the parachute was! That takes a whole lot of trust! Later I realized I had jumped out of an airplane attached to a man that I knew nothing about. And I truly had a sense of peace? It did not bother me; I knew he knew what he was doing… why should I worry about it? (I also realized that I trust the cheerleaders on my squad super easily too… this makes me a better flyer, but shouldn’t I apply that trust to another area of my life as well?) Would I really attach myself to Christ and jump out of the airplane? Sometimes (well many times, honestly) I doubt whether God knows what He is doing with my life. “Are you sure about that God? Is that really the best decision for my life right now?” Well Luther (my dive instructor) had credentials… he owned the company, he jumped 8 times a day, he had lost count of his dives after he hit 4,000… so of course he knew what he was doing! Well, God is the Creator of the Universe… nothing can beat that! :) I just want to live my life in complete trust. Trust in my family, my friends, my teammates, and especially my God… because He is the only one that I can truly have complete trust in, the only one that is 100% reliable. Yes, I did have a LOT of trust in Luther that day... I hope I can have that much trust in God someday.

My dad talked about how he put his trust in his dive master. I think that the reason that I was given a sense of peace the night before was that I realized how much control God has over our lives. Yes, we could die in a freak skydiving accident, or we could die in a car accident... or anything. We should really live as if it is our last day. Think about the impact that would cause us to have on our community! It made me think of the popular country song, Live Like You Were Dying. The beginning talks about a guy in his forties, who finds out he has cancer and will die soon. His friend asked his how he delt with it. He said,

I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying

He said, I was finally the husband, that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden going fishing, wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the Good Book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again…

Like tomorrow was a gift
And you got eternity to think about what to do with it
What could you do with it
What did I do with it
What would I do with it…

It just seems like people have more to live for when they know they could die tomorrow. Well, couldn’t any of us? As Christians, we should be living like there is no tomorrow… not because Jesus might come back, or we might die, or our parachute might not open... but because we should live our lives to the fullest! We should love as deep as we can, and speak as sweet as we can, and just imitate Christ in the way He called us to.

Sorry about the rambling, :) I just wanted to say that I want to trust God with every area of my life and I want to live a life that will impact my community TODAY, not tomorrow, not when I graduate college, and not in 40 years! But today, and everyday as long as God continues to bless me with this life!

Thanks for the experience Daddy :)