Sometimes following Jesus can feel a little bit like standing on the edge of a cliff. The only genuine way to go is to carry on walking forward but to do so risks falling off the edge. To not carry on walking risks being stuck in the same place where nothing will ever change. I guess what I am really trying to say is that to follow Jesus requires trust, or as Brennan Manning once called it ‘ruthless trust’.
As a kid, I was really into the Indiana Jones films. I watched everything to do with Indiana Jones and, at one point, I might even have wanted to become an archeologist until I realised they didn’t all have whips and guns. In the third film of the trilogy ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ Jones is standing on the edge of a massive drop. There is literally nowhere else to go other than forward but logically that would mean he would plunge to an almost certain death. Indiana Jones throws some dust and what it reveals is that there is an unseen path across the chasm. He puts his first foot forward, trusting the unseen path and emerges on the other side. It was literally the only way he could continue along the journey of the last crusade.
Life is so often like this. Psalm 119:105 tells us that “[God’s] word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path,” whenever I read these words I always get the impression that God shines a light just for the place where our next footstep will land. He rarely shines it any further. Recently, it became very clear to both my family and myself that I needed to give myself full-time to building the CVM Cymru ministry across Wales. However, to do this I would clearly need to trust God to provide for us as a family. As we pondered this decision, other factors came into play which meant it was more and more obvious that to step forward into this was the only way for us to move forward, but to say the path was not clear would be an understatement. At the time of writing this, I have indeed taken those first few steps and it is amazing to see the ways that God is shining His light for every step and proving to me that when we trust in Him he will never let down us down.
So, may I encourage you to trust God, even if that feels utterly counterintuitive. None of us ever choose to get frozen to the spot, frightened to move forward and unable to go back. But, let’s be honest, so many of us have found ourselves in that very place at some point in our lives.
God is the God of his word, he never lies, he never changes his mind or loses interest in us. Jesus is deeply, deeply committed to leading us into his Kingdom forever and every step we make is as important to him as it is to us and we can trust him implicitly.
I will sign off with this amazing promise that God has for everyone of us:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
So, if you are standing on the edge of the proverbial cliff today, feel the fear but face it anyway, trust God and his promises for you. If you need to throw out some dust so that God can reveal part of the path to you, do it, but then step forward confidently.
Too many of us are letting life hit us, when if we truly walk with the Lord, we can positively hit life and live it to the full.
