Jake's Thought for the Week

Each Monday I will be posting Jake's Thought for the Week which he sends out to all the parents of the players in his Kingdom Hoops program. Here it is for this week:

Be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. -Samuel 12:24-

A LEAP OF FAITH
(Excerpt from the book Faith & Doubt by John Ortberg):

Doubt always comes. Here’s the sad truth about the mountain-top: no one is allowed to remain there permanently. Everyone has to return to the valley of ambiguity.

This means that we can expect that our sense of certainty about our beliefs will ebb and flow. Sometimes doubt will come. But – and this is the important part – doubts do not always come because we have been given new evidence against our faith. One of the biggest illusions we have about our minds is that they are generally governed by reason. But our minds are not logic machines. What seems true to us in one moment can change drastically in the next.

Several years ago, when I lived in Southern California, I had a friend who liked to hang glide. He took me up on a mountain to watch him. He said he was going to give me a gift up on the mountain. We went up there, and it was beautiful. When you’re on a mountain, the sight is scenic and inspiring.

Other people would hang glide off that same mountain. It was a popular spot. After we arrived, some people came over and gave us a little lecture about safety and showed us the equipment. They showed us how strong the harnesses were and explained the aerodynamics of hang gliding. They talked about how the odds of death related to hang gliding are only about one in one thousand. They gave us this lecture while we were sitting in a parking lot – in safety. I believed what they said. It all made sense. And then my friend said, “Okay, now here’s the gift that I’m giving you today. Today you are going to hang glide with me. Today you are going to jump off this mountain.”

I walked over to the edge of the cliff and stood there. What do you think happened to my sense of certainty as I moved from safety over to the edge of the cliff? Do you think my sense of certainty and safety went up or down? It went way down. My mind was suddenly flooded with doubts. What if the harness unbuckled? What if the wings failed? What if there was a rogue tornado? What if I was attacked by a large bird? I saw my body splattered down there on the ground.

Objectively, nothing had changed from the parking lot to the edge of the cliff. I had received no new evidence that would incline me intellectually to think that hang gliding was less safe. I had no new information, yet my mind was suddenly flooded with doubt. That is what often happens when I move from safety to the edge.

I had a choice to make. You don’t “partly” step off a mountain. Either you jump or you stay put. This is sometimes called “the leap of faith.” If you want to fly, if you ever want to soar, you have to take that leap. Your mind may have all kinds of fears and doubts running through it, but if you want to fly, you have to take the leap. And I did. It was fabulous. I’ve never done it again, but it was pretty cool.

The idea of a leap of faith has frequently been misunderstood. It does not mean choosing to believe an impossible thing for no good reason. Sometimes people talk about it as if it is the “leap” in which you ignore evidence, give up on reason, and embrace fantasy. But leap is a genuinely free action. Any freely chosen commitment is a leap, such as the choice to marry or to bear children. The move from innocence to sin is also a leap.

The leap of faith is a “leap” because it involves making a total commitment. It can be made for good reasons – reasons we have carefully considered. But it is nevertheless a leap, because we have to commit in spite of our fears and doubts, for there is no other way to soar, no other way to fly.

Certain fundamental decisions in life require 100 percent commitment – passionate engagement. And some decisions, generally the most important ones, require total commitment but do not give any guarantees.

But, if I leap, if I trust, I do not know for sure what will happen. What I do know is this: If I don’t leap, if I don’t trust, if I don’t hope, if I don’t ask, I will never soar. I will never know. I will live and grow old and die standing on the side of that cliff.

Have a great week,
Jake Sullivan