Jump First, Fear Later

Another article published in My Place Magazine (http://www.myplacemagazine.net/)


JUMP FIRST, FEAR LATER

So it was summer 1998, I was probably 14 years old, crazy, full of energy and on my way to one of the best water park in the nation. When we got there I notice the "big dive", a 20 feet high jump into the 20 feet deep pool. No one in my family wanted to try it, but me. You see, since I was small I wanted to try crazy things, I was 14 years old and full of live, that's what we teenagers do, right? So, I went for it. I went up the stairs, but when I got up everything looked different. I was scared to jump. Many others next to me where jumping; including this Russian tourist which to my understanding he must have been part of the Russian diving team. They all went in front of me and jumped. My family down on the ground was cheering for me "come on jump, just jump". After three unsuccessful attempts, I did it. I jumped. On my way down my whole life started to pass by in front of my tightly closed eyes. Don’t ask me why, but I decided to flip. I wanted to make things more exciting, but I just didn’t know how to dive. I jumped, but I didn’t really think about how the landing was going to work. So of course I landed in a "abortion position". Bang. I hit myself as a splashed into the pool. The first words I heard was from a stranger yelling to the Life Guard "Oye loco tirale el salvavida que ese tipo se dio duro". Sure he was right, I got hit pretty hard. The aftermath: I never jumped again. I became frustrated, and too afraid to jump again.
You see this leads me to think about a man that's been influential in my life, Mike Yacconeli, he said in a motivational video for youth workers: Just Jump First and Fear later. And this have been in my mind since then. Jump First, Fear later. Pretty different of the way we think. We want to have everything figure out before we get ourselves into anything. At least it was not the way Peter thought before he walked on water. He just jumped out of the boat, and went for it. He became the only man ever recorded to walk on water (besides Jesus of course).You see my question for you is: How long has it been since you decided to do something mega-awesomely-big for God? Think about the last time you took the chance of dreaming in GOD, and waiting on God to help you make those crazy dreams come true.
Trust me sometimes we need to just JUMP! Jump First and fear later. Let your stubbornness and “child-like” faith in Jesus made you let go of the past, the voices in our head, and Jump into God's arms in order to JUMP into all the great things He has for you. Remember to just iJump First and Fear Later. Right now I am jumping into many things that are big projects and only with God's help I could guarantee success. My motivation for you is to Jump, Jump into something crazy for God, he will take care of the rest. Just Jump First, Fear Later.

If you would like to read some of Mike Yacconelli’s articles go to www.youthspecialties.com or if you have any comments or concerns write to me at pastorlipe@yahoo.com