On August 14, 1999 my wife and I took a leap of faith and
both said "I Do".
We both brought a lot of baggage to the altar and neither
of us fully knew what we were signing up for.
The next 14 years have included fear, joy, laughs, love, tears,
peace, pain, and, above all else, growth.
We have been stretched. And we remain together.
We decided that it would be fitting to celebrate our
wedding anniversary by taking another leap - this time a physical one from over
10,000 feet in the air.
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| Gulp. |
Having talked about it for years, we decided this was the
time to DO it. We're in the best shape we've been in for a long time, and we're practicing saying Yes when new opportunities that push us outside our comfort zones appear.
Honestly, the feelings leading up to these two events,
separated by more than a decade, were pretty similar: a potion of excitement & fear that left
you a little buzzed all day, every day. Secrecy added an ounce or two of intrigue to the
skydiving event (we were the only two that knew about our impending jump).
We sent each other text messages each day - most of which
were only two words long: "Holy
crap!" (it pretty much summed up our thoughts and it drew a smile from the recipient every time - we couldn't believe we were
actually going to do this!)
We were filled with both anticipation and fear. "What if something goes wrong? What if
we chicken out? What will friends and
family think? Are we bad parents for
doing this after having kids? What if I
faint on the way down? What if I don't
land right and I hurt my back? What if I
get the biggest wedgie of all-time when that 'chute opens?"
I'll be writing another post that gives more details on
the nuts and bolts of the skydiving experience, but, for today, just know that
our fears increased right up until the moment that our 'chutes opened and we
safely (relatively speaking) floated the rest of the way to the ground.
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| Weeeeeee! |
The fears were replaced with exhilaration and a
reassuring wave of confidence after realizing we had successfully done what we
seriously doubted we could do.
We spent the next couple of hours having brunch and
hanging out in Minneapolis - processing both the dive, and our last 14 years
together. A few things stood out to me
as we talked:
1. We both truly
believe that we can face anything - together.
2. We have spent a
lot of time and energy in the land of fear, and we don't want to live there anymore.
3. As Believers,
our parachute has been open the entire time. We've never been in free-fall. He's had us covered and we need to start living like it. How can we possibly attract others to our Creator when we're living a timid faith marked by doubt, shame, guilt, and judgment? We want to continue to grow toward bearing fruit while having a blast doing it.
 |
| Both a little bit taller. |
All that said, I'm thankful that we took the leap in
1999, and I'm thankful for the reminders, and new lessons, that the leap in 2013 has
provided. I love that the Man Upstairs can use all of our
experiences to draw us closer to Him.
I don't know that either of us feel the need to jump from
another perfectly good airplane anytime soon. However, we are both looking forward to the next
adventure that God has for us - as a couple, and as a family.
Cheers, pba.
