u2areloved

 Suspended Reality

Suggested Listening: “Beautiful Day” – U2  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vncOE5JICc 

      Go!  And out you jump!  Can you even imagine what that first five seconds feels like when you take the plunge out of an airplane—willingly?  Oh sure, back on earth the decision may have felt totally sane when you were contemplating another item to cross off your bucket list.

Now you’re here.   No time to back out.  You may have traces of fear or you may be totally consumed with it.  No matter.  Your name is called. You and your more than capable instructor, who is attached in tandem to you, stand at the open door and prepare to take the leap.  This leap of faith; you own it!

     You’re OUT!     Wooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!  Your heart is pumping so hard; it feels like it might explode!  The earth is so beautiful from out here.  Sure you’ve flown before, but you were never part of the atmosphere like this.  You’re falling at speeds over 100 mph and cherishing every second of it!   Your mind is a movie camera as it tries to memorize your descent at multiple frames per second.     You redefine status in the Mile High Club; don’t you?!

Your mind is in a state of suspended reality.  You forget that down below babies are being born, wars are being fought, marriages are taking place, people are at desks working, or they’re driving vehicles, or riding on subways, or carrying water while walking  dirt paths, and a trillion other events simultaneously.   How could you?  You are here now.  The earth is silent, save the loud wind that pulls your face back–a temporary face lift.

Your falling, safely, at speeds over 100 mph.  You are at One with your partner that is attached to you and you are at peace with who you are and the world in which you inhabit down below.  This is the moment that you knew you were destined to meet up with.  Your fear left once you saw how beautiful it all was! 

You trust.  You are braver than most people who only tread the earth.  You know family and friends back on earth love you; oh sure they do!  You were always a risk-taker; but never without calculation.  The risk that you took is completely eclipsed by the grand reward which God gave you today:

Life!  It is Magnificent!  This Beautiful Day!

     Your trust in the instructor is required and is repaid a million times over the moment your parachute is pulled.   Like a flower that shoots up, you’re  temporarily pulled back and begin falling slower now, as you return to the gravity you’ve always known.

The moment your feet touch ground, you already know you’ve changed.  You did it!  You carry a new appreciation in your heart.  These pictures that suspend you in time and space will make your heart sing every time you remember.  When you feel the most alive; you truly live.

For Chelsea—So proud of you, my beautiful niece who always walks in a spirit of joy, courage, and faith, knowing that life always turns out for the best!  You are indeed your mother’s daughter!

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said,

“why did you doubt?”  Matthew 14:31 (NIV)