Jumping Off the Bridge

This isn't a picture of me jumping off this bridge in Yosemite, I found it online. It could have been me though. I jumped off a bridge like this when I looked to be about this boy's age. I think the bridge I jumped off of was Stoneman. It just brought back so many memories of being a kid. I would never jump off a bridge now. It seems dangerous (not to mention stupid!). The memories though ministered to me as they came flooding back.

I jumped off the bridge then because I wasn't afraid of the water. I wasn't worried about getting hurt because I had seen my sister and cousin do it first. It all boils down though to the fear factor. There was no fear in me about the jump. I am thinking back now to the many things in my life that have kept me on the bridge. Fear of rejection. Fear of getting hurt. Fear of falling. Fear of jumping in. Fear of the unknown.
As kids we have such a unique gift that seems to diminish as we get older. That is the gift of fearlessness. Not so much that we are super brave, but because we are ignorant to all the risk factors that are involved in our decisions and actions. We see and we do. We hear, we trust and we obey. There was no weighing of pros and cons, no risk analysis.
I want that gift back. As I have been on my discipleship walk with Christ, I have abandoned my need to be respected and taken seriously. I want to be childlike. I want to see the actions and character of Christ and imitate them. I want to hear Christ, to trust Him, and to obey Him. I want to be the kid jumping off the bridge of religion into the flowing river of relationship with Christ and true discipleship and live for the excitment of it, the thrill of it. The thrill of trusting and allowing myself to be led and directed.

Be Blessed and Be a Child again!
Mikey