It just occurred to me that following Jesus is a bit like ski jumping. I tried ski jumping when I was in ninth or tenth grade. I am still trying to be a follower of Jesus.

When I was in high school there was a thirty-meter jump in Hoyt Lakes. My older brother jumped for the Aurora Hoyt Lakes ski team. I decided to follow in his footsteps.

All I had to do to get started was mention that I wanted to do it. Other people took over once I did that. People were rounding up jumping skies for me, finding boots for me to wear, and cheering me along each step of the way. They weren’t clamoring to join me in this endeavor, but they were cheering me along.

There wasn’t an elevator to the top of the Hoyt Lakes ski jump. There wasn’t even something that could qualify as a stairway. There were boards nailed along one edge of the ramp. On the bottom part of the ramp, where the ramp wasn’t very steep, the boards provided a step that would be adequate for most people. At the top of the ramp, I side stepped and only had about a third of my foot in contact with the board. Two thirds of my foot was overhanging the edge.

On a nice summer day, having a third of my foot on the board would have seemed adequate. Once the boards were coated with snow and ice, it didn’t always seem like enough.

I overcame the first challenge of the evening by carrying my skis to the top of the ramp. From the top of the ramp, I could see every house in Hoyt Lakes, and quite a distance beyond the town. I didn’t site see for long. The time had come for me to put on my skies and make a commitment.

In ski jumping you make a commitment by stepping over the edge of the platform at the top of the

ramp. Once your skies are pointed down the ramp and you aren’t on the platform at the top of the ramp anymore, you are committed. There is no stopping, and there is no turning. You don’t get to choose how fast you will accelerate. Gravity has taken over that job for you and you descend pretty close to the speed that free falling objects fall to the ground. The only forces acting to slow

you down are wind resistance and the friction between the bottom of your skies and the snow. Both of these forces are easily overcome by the gravitational pull.

In slightly more than one second you reach the end of the ramp and spring into the air. Once again, gravity decides how fast you will come down. Once you are in the air, you have very little choice about where your skies will next touch the snow, or how soon that will happen. Now it is only wind resistance against gravitational pull.

When people decide to follow Jesus, they make a commitment. Once they make that commitment, they no longer control their own destiny. They pray, and when they do they ask for guidance and direction. They seek to do what Jesus would want them to do, and they do not insist on their own way.

When they walk down the path that Jesus puts in front of them, they don’t necessarily know where it will take them. They don’t know how long it will take to reach the destination Jesus has in mind for them. They step over the edge into the unknown and trust God to give them a safe landing.

My hope for you and for me is that we will be disciples, or followers of Jesus. My hope is that we will grow in knowledge of Jesus and that Jesus will teach us to love the same things he loves. Once we learn to love the things Jesus loves it will be easier for us to decide to do the things that Jesus hopes we would do.

Let us step over the edge of that ramp together. Let us put our trust in God and let us give God control of every aspect of our lives. We can trust God to provide safe landings. May God direct your life and watch over all of your take offs and landings. God bless you.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk