Skiing

As I was reading and doing my devotionals this week I came across an author that related our relationship with Christ to down hill skiing with no lessons. Of course we enjoy the ski lift. The ride is so nice, so scenic, so relaxing, so beautiful, but when you get off the lift and you make the turn that it hits you: "Where's the lift down?!" You are faced with dangers of going down the huge hill. There are rocks, there are cliffs, and at the very bottom of the hill is the chalet. (Which I have actually ran into when I first learned how to ski!). The only thing left to do, is to lean forward and go for it.

I've experienced this before, as my life got overwhelming, messy, I would turn to God, and He would pick me up, and in other words sets me in the ski lift, but when I get to the top, I'd realize that the journey was really just about to begin. Where ever I made a mess, that's where I have to start cleaning it up. Where ever I failed, that where I had to start. Being a person of faith doesn't mean that I am exempt from this world. I'm still living in the same universe, same skin, same situations, same problems, same weaknesses, and the same circumstances. (Some things don't change). Even though I may not fully realize or recognize this, but what is actually changing is ME. Sometimes it's in the midst in all of our problems that we find out who we truly are. It's when we take the leap of faith even though we may not know the outcome, when we really begin to see the plan God has for us.

Faith- is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I love reading about Abraham in the Old Testament. It was by faith, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. There is no evidence that Abraham was a bad guy, corrupt, not a mass murderer, or a greedy landowner who needed to get his life in order. All we are told is that he lived in one place where he had security and certainty, and God told him to go on a journey to a place he had no idea of. Just like skiing with no lessons. You will fall, you will face rocks, bumps, may even run into the chalet at the bottom of the hill, but eventually you will get back on the lift, get to the top and realize that you can do this.

The question I ask myself, and I encourage anybody who reads this: Am I willing to move from what I have to what I could create? Am I willing to give up what I know for what I don't know? Am I willing to risk everything i have to create the life I could have?

This is the same tough choices that those who came before us and were marked by faith had to make.