High with Confidence (Part 1)

“Jesus reached out, grabbed Peter’s outstretched hand, and pulled him back up. He said, ‘Why did you lose faith and begin to doubt? You need to keep your eyes on me.’” Matthew 14:31 ClearWord

The idea of spending a day in British Columbia doing a high ropes obstacle course in the trees, really got me excited! I was pumped and ready to go up. Before we advanced on the journey, our guide had to make sure we knew what to do, and had the rules down pat. We had to keep our harnesses buckled in at ALL times, and when going down the zip-lines, we were to keep our eyes straight ahead and arms protruding straight forward and grasping the clip.  “Come on! Let’s just go, I’m ready. This is a piece of cake! Those rules…I know, I know.” I, like most, didn’t care about what they were saying. I knew what I was doing and just wanted to get up there!

Finally, we headed up. I was ahead of my brother and father, and before long, I was cruising through and got so far ahead of them that I lost sight of the two. As the course slowly got higher and higher off the ground, I began to realize why we had to stay buckled and take our time to not miss a clip.

I approached to my first zip-line high off the ground. I followed instructions: first, the zip-line clip secured; second, the two harness clips; and I was off. Starting well, I gained courage to look at my surroundings and before I knew it, I was spinning in circles and fast approaching the end of my line. I forgot my instructions and quickly tried to straighten out by bending my arms and twisting the line. Right before the end, where I was to hit the stop pad, I straightened just on time.

How many times in life do we think we know what we’re doing? God is there trying to help us through, showing us which harnesses we need to clip to certain events. He tells us to never take our eyes off of Him. Like Peter, I got confident in myself, and lost the vision of the Lord directing. As soon as my eyes wandered, I found myself in a predicament. Luckily for me, God was watching and stuck out His hand for guidance.  Never take your eyes off of the Lord. He knows what He’s doing, and can direct you through it all, as long as you trust Him and follow with all your heart. When you make a mistake, call on Him, and He will answer.