“You’re perfectly positioned, Son. It’s all right. You can jump.”

Ken1 , a typical ‘macho’ kid, had decided that the time had come for him to go off the high diving board. He had climbed the ladder, crept cautiously to the end of the board and then froze. You see Ken was typical in a lot of ways, but very “a-typical” in one important way: He was blind. Now that the time had come for this daring feat all sorts of scary thoughts began running through his mind. How far am I from the end of the board? What if I land on the concrete? Am I still facing the right way? There’s an excited audience waiting for him to take the last step–friends and onlookers–and they are all yelling, “It’s okay, Ken! Jump!” He’s still frozen. He still hesitates. Then he hears a familiar voice–his Dad’s: “You’re perfectly positioned, Son. It’s all right. You can jump.” And he did.
Why did this voice give him the courage to take the leap into darkness? He knew the voice, he knew the person. He lived with him! He trusted him implicitly. He had been through experiences with him that had proven his loyalty to him. He was confident of this person’s love and his commitment to him.
With those thoughts, I have to ask myself–have I lived with Jesus Christ long enough to know Him? Have you lived with Jesus Christ long enough to know Him? Has He proven His commitment to you? Are you confident of His love for you? Is He trustworthy? If I know Him and can say “yes” to those questions–then why do I so often embrace anxiety as my “dark” companion? Why do I doubt? Why do I listen to the innuendos from Satan or to the words from people–words that cause me to waver–to wonder–to panic?
Ken’s dad couldn’t take away the blindness–things like that happen to all of us in this alien world where we live. But he could be with him and guide him through difficult times and make the blindness bearable. Isn’t that what our Lord does for us? We live in a world where bad things do happen to good people and God’s plan is not to take away all of the hurts, but to go with us through those hurts and make them bearable. He wants us to know the thrill of victory over the darkness. He wants us to believe Him when He calls to us and says, “It’s all right.”

Well, Lord, as it happens so often I wind up knowing the answer to my question and it is usually the same time after time, question after question. If I know You then there is no reason for me to doubt–to waver–to freeze at the end of the “diving board.” So, I should be about the business of getting to know You better. I want to do that, Lord.
Oh, I really want to do that.

1Ken Medema’s true story: Marvelous song writer, singer, pianist, speaker