Imagine yourself at the Grand Canyon, and there is a cable pulled across it, and Jesus wants you to walk across the cable.
He says don’t worry, if you fall, I will catch you.
Let’s also imagine that the cable runs about 50 feet back away from the cliff over the land, so it’s only 10 feet above the land before you hit the ground.
So you get on the cable and start walking and fall, and Jesus catches you. He then says, Let’s do it again. Once again, you get on there, and you move a little bit longer down the path and fall again. Jesus once again says, Let’s try one more time. And you walk even further now, getting more comfortable, then you fall, and Jesus catches you again.
Now imagine that you’re getting to the edge of the canyon, and it’s a mile down to the bottom. You ask Jesus, Are you going to catch me? He replies, I have caught you each and every time so far. What makes you think that I’m not going to catch you now?
You say, Lord, how many times can I fall before you stop catching me? Jesus replies, I will never stop catching you. So now you’re at the edge of the canyon. You have a decision to make. Jesus has caught you each every time when the risk seemed minimal, but now the risk is life and death. Are you going to trust him?
Jesus says if I had faith with little things, I can now trust him in the big things. I want you to experience greater depth of trust so you can experience all the good that’s on the other side of the canyon. There’s no hurry. We take this one step at a time as long as it takes, but please don’t give up. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I’ll catch you every time, and there’s nothing, no wind, no storm, no circumstance, that will stop me from catching you.
So today, Rich, trust me with your business with your depression, with your marriage with your family and your money, with your health, and most of all with your walk with me.
As a side note, we know about the story of Peter getting out of the boat walking on water and always see it as a single attempt, but I believe a story if written differently would see after the first time Peter was fearful and got back in the boat, but then Jesus asked him, Let’s do it again. And again and again, and every time Peter got out of the boat, he walked a little farther and started to enjoy the interaction with Jesus. Eventually, fear left him and fun, and the challenge gave him the courage to get out and keep trying because he saw that every time he started to sink Jesus caught him.
