The Day I Learned How To Fly

“I can’t do this! My heart threatened to jump out of my chest.

A battle between fear and embarrassment raged inside my body.

Fear of all the implications of Ziplining through a mountain. This is done by “gliding along a suspended cable over the top of a forest’s canopy, from one platform to another to another,” in this case the rainforest of Copan Ruins in Honduras.

Embarrassment from watching my young children, who went before me on their own, encouraging me from the other side.

“Are you sure that little rope is strong enough? I don’t want to fly into oblivion!” The rope I buckled around my waist seemed so insignificant against the vastness of the precipice underneath.”

“That one isn’t” he said “You’re grabbed the wrong one. Just follow my lead and trust me.”

The young instructor strapped me to his belt and then to the thick cable above. “Does your mother know you do this for a living?” He laughed out loud and nodded and jumped off the platform.

I closed my eyes and held my breath. My stomach and heart decided to stay behind.

“Lady, open your eyes! Look around you!”

I opened my eyes to a blanket of blue skies embracing me. Tall mountains covered with green, plush, tropical trees framed my view as far as my eyes could see.

The valley underneath was sprinkled with gushing rivers, extensive farmland and the famous Mayan ruins in the distance.

Past and present meshed together in front of my eyes.

We landed on the wooden platform, the second of many more.

My heart and stomach eventually caught up with me.

“Wasn’t flying fun mom?” my ten-year-old son jumped up and down. “And we still have fifteen more to go!”

“See! You just have to trust like your children do. And enjoy the journey.”

I learned two important lessons from my children and that young instructor that day: To trust the one who knows and enjoy the journey.

Trust– Sometimes we are confronted with problems that shake our world and threaten to drown us.

We have two options:

• Fear and worry. This is a weak “rope” that instead of upholding us will pull us down into anxiety, depression, hopelessness and mental and physical sickness.
• Trust is firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something (New Oxford American Dictionary). This is the thick, strong cable that will sustain us until we get to the other side.

Our children threw themselves into the experience of Ziplining without thinking about the possibility of any danger. Why? Because they trusted us blindly. They didn’t question or doubt our love and good intentions towards them. This trust overpowered any fear they might have felt of the unknown dangers of the sport.

Their attitude exemplified the Biblical definition of trust explained in

Hebrews 11:1 Trust is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. (CJB)

When we face fear, distress, disappointments or any difficult situation in life the Lord invites us to call on to Him and He will answer.

He promises to give us rest when we are tired, strength when we are weak, wisdom when we don’t know what to do, hope when our future looks dark.

He will not love us any more or any less than He does right now and will never change His mind about us regardless of our past or present condition.

He died on the cross to prove it.

I invite you to give it a try.

Come back next week for the rest of the story…