Risky Faith

It was 11 pm on a weeknight in 2013.

Cody (my husband, but boyfriend at the time) called me “What are you doing?”

What was I doing? Well, on a weeknight at a church of christ college at 11 pm I was doing nothing. I’d probably already made my run to taco bell and back and I was binging a show because my roommate’s Dad bought us AppleTV. And in 2013, AppleTV was a BIG DEAL.

“Wanna go star gazing?” Cody asked.

I was bored, I had nothing else to do, and our best conversations about faith, life and our fears all happened while star gazing. So why not?

“Yeah, but where?” I asked.

“New football field. I’ll be at your dorm in five.”

Cody came to my dorm and the two of us walked to the new football field the school had just built. We climbed the locked fence and made our way over to the center of the field.

Before we even sat down the field, we heard something.

A car, driving down the gravel driveway that led to the football field where we were. It was then that we noticed blue lights and the headlights of the school security guard driving right to where we were.

I felt the panic.

The feeling that we had made a bad decision to try to be where we were at the wrong time. The fear that we would be misunderstood and kicked out of school for breaking rules, etc.

For a little perspective, our school security at the time was a bit power hungry and any chance to catch students doing ANYTHING remotely “off the rulebook” was an adrenaline rush for these guys. I knew in that moment we were in for trouble if they found us.

I looked to cody “What have we done? We are gonna get in so much trouble. omg omg omg.”

Cody looked at me, “Lay down on the ground.”

“you’re joking right? Lay down on the ground? I can see it now, headline of the email to the dean and administration: Boy and Girl student lay together on football field” I replied.

“No no, I mean lay down to hide and when he security guard drives around the field house, RUN to the fence and hop it, we can hide under the bleachers until he gets back” Cody shushed me.

Let me just say.. There are two different types of people in this world: People who can sprint and hop fences and people who cannot.

I am the latter.

The car neared the field house and before I could get to my feet, cody was gone. Sprinted, hopped and waiting on me to just get on my feet.

He was leaning over the chain linked fence with his arms outstretched waiting to help me over to the other side.

I was trying to run, but I was slow. I couldn’t just hoist my body over. I ran as fast as I could and when I made it to the fence, I was slowly trying to get a foot in the links to climb over.

Keyword: Climb… not hop.

Cody whisperyelled (a word we use in our home to describe what its like to whisper what you would yell if you were in the proper circumstance to yell) “wrap your arms around my neck and stop climbing, I’ll pull you over.”

So I did. I wrapped my arms around him and Cody pulled my whole 5 ft 11 self to the other side. I was scraped up and disheveled but we made it to a hiding spot under the bleachers as we watched the security car scan the football field with a spotlight. We were safe, adrenaline rushed, and relieved.

The other day Cody and I were reflecting upon that night. We were laughing as I re told it with so much enthusiasm.

Cody stopped and turned to me and said, “What if you hadn’t run? What if you just stayed where you were?”

I thought about it. I considered the lie I would have told to security to keep Cody out of trouble. I thought that I probably would’ve gotten a slap on the wrist.

But, I realized in that moment that I took a risk of not making it to the other side of that fence by running towards it, Cody with his arms stretched out to help me to the other side.

How many times in our lives do we sit still in fear of “what ifs” that we miss out on the rush of joy that comes from acting out of faith.

How many times do we decide in advance what we think God cannot do for us instead of trusting Him enough to try and find out. Because it isn’t what God cannot do, it’s what we cannot do without God. But how easy is it to decide that it’s up to us to take care of it all?

Do you remember the story of the Israelites? Promise after promise, miracle after miracle and yet they STILL had trouble believing that God would come through for them? Because of that, hundreds and thousands of Israelites never saw the promise land because they let their circumstance tell them what to do instead of fixing their eyes on the promises God had laid before them.

We have a great destiny on our lives because we are Co-heirs with Christ. The trouble we run into time and time again is that we see our lack instead of fixing our eyes on the promise before us.

I couldn’t run and hop a fence.

But Cody could, and he helped me to the other side.

The Israelites saw the promise land and it had everything the Lord had promised them, but when they saw the people there, saw their strength, and then saw what they thought was their own lack, they decided they couldn’t do it. So they didn’t. So they stayed where they were. They stayed in their lack.

Until Joshua came into leadership and made them move.

Sometimes our assignment from heaven leads us to a place that helps others finish their assignment. When we don’t do our part, they can’t do theirs.

If I can guess, there are a lot of you who have big dreams and visions stored deep down in your heart that you have never run after. Why? Because you think you can’t run and hop a fence.

Well you can’t run and hop a fence.

But Jesus can.

And His arms are stretched out waiting for you to run, wrap your arms around Him and let Him carry you to the other side.