"You HAVE to Jump!"

I spend an oddly large amount of time with children under the age of 12. In fact I recently gave away FloydFest tickets because I would rather spend the evening with a 9 and 7 year old than go to the festival. (So weird I know). Through my years as a WyldLife leader I've also learned that young people between the ages of 5 and 14 can pretty much get me to do anything. It's a blessing and a curse. I've been convinced to ride roller coasters, eat weird things, and make a fool of myself dancing in front of large groups of people.

This past week I've gotten the blessing of spending an extra abnormal amount of time with the world's greatest 7 and 9 year olds. It always surprises me how much you can learn from little kids. Jesus draws to many parallels to little children in the Bible so it shouldn't be that surprising, but it is. The girls spent the afternoon with me the other day and decided that they wanted to go swimming in the pond at the house I'm staying at. I'm not big on ponds or murky water or the gross bottoms of ponds or water with fish and snapping turtles in it. Trying to be sneaky I didn't put on my bathing suit and told the girls I couldn't get in because I forgot a bathing suit. Don't know if you've ever hung out with girls this age, but they are freaking relentless.

Ten minutes later I was standing on the end of the dock wearing a life jacket (I know how to swim, just wanted to keep myself from touching the bottom, and the girls got to laugh at me in the process) and all my clothes with fearless little girls on both sides of me. "You HAVE to jump!" They kept screaming. I tricked them a couple times and got them to jump in without me, but eventually I caved and jumped in the pond.

Plot twist: I didn't die. Shocker, I know. I survived, I laughed, I jumped in a few more times, and I even had fun.

How many times in life do I face situations where I don't want to jump? Where I stand at the end of the pier and make excuses instead of jumping in? Oh how I wish these sweet little girls would follow me around all day everyday and remind me that I have to jump. I have to jump into relationships. I have to jump into uncomfortable situations. I have to jump into things that Jesus calls me into even when I don't want to, just like Peter stepped out of the boat. I have to trust that whatever I'm being called into is worth the risk, and that's scary as crap, but it's also an exciting adventure.

Jump.