Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W.                                                        July 23, 2013

      Carol and I took our daughter, Kecia, and grandkids Jesse and Reagan to the hot springs pool in Glenwood Springs, Colorado recently. We had a great time, marveling at the beauty of the mountains as we drove to and from.

At the pool Jesse was  splashing around under the watchful eye of his Grammie. Reagan, on the other hand, was having a test of faith with her mom on the side of the pool. She was wrestling with what level of trust to place upon the one who gave birth to her.

“Go ahead, Reagan! Jump! I’ll catch you.”

     “I want you to come closer, Mommy!”

     “I’ll catch you. Just take a step.”

      Like me the first time I jumped off the high dive at the pool, Reagan peered over the edge of the pool with heightened doubt and apprehension. It was that moment, that we all have felt in some way, where the tipping point has not quite been reached that will take us from stationary to stepping into the unsure.

I felt that a few years ago when Kecia and my son-in-law, Kevin, convinced me to ride a crazy man’s roller coaster at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. Top Thrill Dragster was thirteen seconds of insane faith. When they put bleachers beside an amusement park ride it is a bad sign for someone who isn’t quite convinced that the tipping point is worth the risk.

“It’s okay, Reagan! I’ll catch you.”

Reagan looked skeptical of her mother’s catching power, but she started to take the step…but bailed out.

More encouragement, more promises. She started to take the step again, but then at the last moment she went to a squat. Squatting brought her closer to her mom’s hands. She reached out with her own hands, touched the hands in waiting, and then stepped.

A squat of faith. Not quite the same fear factor that a step of faith requires, bit still a moving from dry to wet.

Sometimes steps have to be preceded by squats. For Reagan an hour of faith squats was required before a step of faith happened.

I had to leave the pool for a while, but when I came back the squats had disappeared and the leaps of faith had begun. Sometime in my absence the step of faith had been jumped over.

In church life there are the initiators, those who present an idea or leap into a new direction. Most churches have a few, if that many, people who would be classified in that group. Then there are the early adopters. Those people who take the step after someone else has initiated the idea. The third group is perhaps the largest group. They are the late adopters. They are the ones who need to squat before they step. Getting closer to the outstretched hands is imperative for them before they can take the leap.

My granddaughter taught me that squatting is okay. It’s like the sixteen year old driving the family car with her dad in the passenger seat…in an empty school parking lot when there isn’t a car within sight. It’s the phase she needs to go through to get comfortable with the challenge ahead.

Ultimately, the step has to be taken, but Reagan reminded me that some things don’t need to be rushed into.

Now watch! I’ll say that and she will end up being a ski jumper! Come to think of it, they kind of get into a squat position before they launch!

Scary!