Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
Leap of Faith
Both my father and uncle were in the Army. When I was young, I heard my father give my uncle a good ribbing: “Do you know what cadence we marched to?” Seeing my father smile he cautiously said no. “It went something like this: The first week they separate the men from the boys. The second week they separate the men from the idiot’s. The third week the idiot’s jump!”
It takes a lot of trust in your parachute, and in whoever packs it, to jump out of a plane. Can you imagine someone saying, “I trust the parachute to save me” but they never put it on! How about, “I trust it so I don’t need to open it!” Both would be idiots.
Jesus is treated this way by people and it is considered normal. They believe God loves them too much to send them to hell, so they never put on Jesus (Galatians 3:27). Others put on Jesus but never trust Him enough to guide them through difficult times and temptations. Their faith is false.
Soren Kierkegaard is credited with the phrase “leap of faith.” He (I think wrongly) separated belief (based on evidence) from faith (beyond proof). But the point I want to emphasize is “leap.” He stated, “where Christianity wants to have inwardness, worldly Christendom wants outwardness, and where Christianity wants outwardness, worldly Christendom wants inwardness.” If we are to truly have Jesus in our lives, we must be contrary to the world (even the world’s Christianity), and active even leaping. We must be willing to move out away from the safety of doubt and have full faith in uncertainty. Paratroopers can argue the certainty of other jumps being successful. But each time is it’s own experience. They demonstrate great faith. Especially that first step.
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