Leaps of Faith

Steps of Faith
Leaps

I was prepared to grow in many different ways during my first semester of college. I was told it would be tough, but I was excited to see how God was going to work. As I reflect on the summer before this first semester, I realized that I had many prayers asking God to stretch me, use me, grow me:

"Lead me in the direction You want me to go."

"Help me to see things the way you do."

"Help me to trust and believe that You are right here next to me."

"May You be the most important influence in my life."

"God, change me and shape me from the inside out."

"Shape my heart to love like you and change my mind to think like you, think of you in every situation."

"God, open the doors that need to be opened. Help me to know what is best."

"Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. (Psalm 69:15 ESV)"

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (Psalms 51:12 NLT)"

"Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you. (Psalms 86:11 NLT)"

These are just a few of the prayers i have prayed over the past 6 months asking God to grow me and strengthen my faith.

As i think back over the past few years I'm reminded of "steps" of faith I have taken in order to follow God. I think He reminds us of our faithful times as encouragement. It's as if He's patting us on the back saying "Well done, good and faithful servant. Now keep steppin'." I thought of my Junior year when I decided to drop soccer in order to have time to be able to focus on God and my relationships. Step of faith. I remember the time I began stepping into pursing a youth ministry degree. I remember stepping into the decision of attending a Christian college. All steps of faith I am grateful for and am thankful God led me in that direction.

There is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that I discovered early in my faith journey, and I remember it being an encouraging, influential quote.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."

Don't get me wrong, I still love this quote and the imagery remains in my mind when thinking of following God. Keep on walking, even if we cannot see all of where we are going. One step at a time.

However, I have come to learn over the past few months that sometimes God requires more than a step of faith. He requires a leap.  

What's the difference?

Well, with a leap, it requires you to leave everything behind. No turning back. When taking a step, you have your feet in two places at once. It allows you to make sure the upcoming steps is firm and stable as we slowly transfer our weight from one step to the next. A leap requires 100% faith that your feet are going to land on solid ground. You can't be in two places at once. It requires you to go all in. You may not even be able to see where you're going to land, but that's where faith comes in. It requires us to have faith that if you leap, God will provide a landing. Not only will he provide a landing, I think He also is standing there, arms open, ready to catch us, like a father waiting in a pool for a child to jump in the seemingly bottomless vat of water. A leap of faith is faith based, trust based. There is no going back.

"I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back...though none go with me, I still will follow." - I Have Decided by Elevation Worship

 When I think of leaps of faith in the bible, a few different people come to mind.

Noah.
Noah was a man of God. They were tight, they were bros. The bible says Noah walked in close fellowship with God (Genesis 6:9). The world was completely broken, sinful, and faithless, and Noah was the only blameless man living on the earth at the time (Genesis 6:9). God being God and knowing everything, knew this, and told Noah to build a gigantic boat because it was going to rain a ton. So that sounds pretty crazy, right? It gets crazier. Noah along with all the people on the earth at that time had never seen rain. Up until that time, the land was arrogated from the bottom up (how cool is that?! Our water bills would go down so much if this were still the case. But sin happened, so now we have high water bills in the summer.) So, Noah builds this huge boat. In the middle of the desert because God told him it was going to rain. A lot. 

Noah had absolutely no reason to follow this commend other than his faith in God. It made no sense whatsoever. Yet, Noah trusted God. Noah had faith that God would come through, that God would catch him. So Noah leaped. He left behind is reputation, his perceived sanity, his friends, his neighbors and Noah leaped.

The First Disciples.
One day, Jesus was strolling along the beach of the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers - Simon (aka Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing because this was how they made a living. Jesus seemed to think these men were the men for the job so he said "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!" (Matthew 4: 19). They left their nets at once and followed him. Okay now let's think about this for a second. Peter and Andrew are fishing because this is how they make a living. This is how they feed themselves and their family, this is how they provide. This is their livelihood. Then one day, this random dude (who happens to be the son of God) comes walking along and is like "Hey, i'll teach you how to fish for people. Let's go." and they go!! They literally leave behind everything at once and follow Jesus. I don't know about you, but I think I would have laughed at him and went on my way fishing. Heck no, I'm not leaving my job to go fish for people - what does that even mean?!

Andrew and Peter literally left behind their everything. They left behind their profession to follow Jesus. This is a leap of faith. They jumped all in, no turning back. And they didn't even flinch. They just jumped, trusting fully in Jesus.


As I continue to grow and learn what it means to follow Jesus, I am finding that often times God requires not a step, but a leap. We have to leave everything that makes sense behind, for His ways are higher than ours. We have to trust that where we leap to, there will be solid ground. God will be there to catch us. We cannot have our feet in two places at once. No more tiptoeing, testing out the ground before us. It's time to jump, it's time to leap. It requires faith, it requires trust, but God is faithful, God is trustworthy. Even if your landing pad is fuzzy, or maybe even completely in the dark. Take the leap. I dare you. God's arms stretched, ready to catch you.

Much Love.