Articles
Learning To Trust
I saw this Friday, and knew I had to steal it. I'd give credit to whomever posted it if I knew the author, but I don't. But I wanted to use it to make a point.
"When a group of tourists visited a crocodile farm, the owner of the place launched a bold proposal, "Whoever dares to jump, swim to the shore and survive, I'll give you $1,000,000. No one dared to move. Suddenly, a man jumped into the water and desperately swam, and made it to the shore while being chased by all the crocodiles.
The owner announced, "We have a brave winner." After the man collected his reward, he and his wife returned to the hotel. Upon arrival, the manager told him that he had been very brave to jump. To which the man replied, "I didn't jump, someone pushed me!"
His wife smiled...
Moral - Behind every successful man, there's a woman who pushes him!"
Have you ever wished God would push you? No, I don't want to have to walk on water to avoid being eaten by crocodiles, but sometimes I wish God would push me past whatever is holding me back.
Years ago, I was teaching repelling to a bunch of students, and had taught it for many years prior to this event. That night was the same as always, it really didn't matter if we were 10' off the ground for beginners, or 60' off the ground for beginners, they all had the same problem. They had to learn to trust the rope. Oh they had watched as one after another student leaned off the platform and put their body weight on the rope, so they knew the rope would hold them. But even that visual proof wasn't enough to dispel their fear.
That night I had one fellow in particular, when it came his turn, he wouldn't trust the rope. No matter how much encouragement we offered, he just wasn't going to step off a perfectly good platform. His knuckles were white from his firm grip on the rail, and his hands and arms were shaking. He really wanted to go, you could see that in him, but he just couldn't! This went on for probably 20 minutes.
Finally as the instructor, I got on a rope beside him, and I leaned back over the edge stopping to wait for him. I managed to coax him a few inches at a time past the point of being able to balance on his feet, and then had him just hold himself there a few minutes, learning to trust the rope. He did, and managed to go a few more times that night. Funny thing, with very rare exception, when all of my student's feet hit the ground, they would say, "let's go again" and usually they would be going off the top platform in a short time. What was different? They overcame their fear and learned to trust the rope.
If you are like me, you want to be more successful as a disciple of Christ. May we learn to fully trust Jesus, by letting Him give us a nudge, and then understand He's got us, He will hold us up, we're going to be OK. He can dispel our fear and grow our trust and lead us to places we've not yet been in His service.
Hope your 4th of July is great. Remember to thank God for your freedom!
