Backflip

WEEKLY WORD

Backflip

Have you ever tried to do a backflip? When I was younger, I remember trying to do backflips so many times, but I just could not bring myself to do it.

I remember one instance, when I was about 17 years-old, our church had rented out a public pool for a few hours. As soon as I found out about the event, I started trying to pump myself up do my first ever backflip into the pool.

I remember standing with my back to the pool and my heels hanging over the edge. I would look back at the pool and then straight ahead again; then back at the pool and straight ahead again, in nervousness. I would bend my knees, squat down a bit, and then try to launch myself heavenward in hopes to flip myself upside-down. Well, instead of flipping myself upside-down, I would end up freaking out and start flailing like a chicken until I finally smacked the water with ferocious contempt.

You see, the hardest part of doing a backflip is that you really can’t see where you are going until you get yourself completely upside-down in the air. When learning how to do your first backflip, that point before the launch until you are upside-down is the hardest part. It takes a little bit of courage, some perseverance and a lot of faith.

I wonder if that is all God wants from us in our own walk with Him: just a little bit of courage, some perseverance and a lot of faith. There have been a lot of points in my own faith where I feel like God is asking me to do a backflip of sorts; a leap of faith, if you will.

Faith was extremely important to Jesus. Multiple times throughout the Bible He calls people out for their lack of faith, he commends others for their great faith and heals many more because of their faith. There is one specific instance in Luke 8 where Jesus directly asks the disciples, “Where is your faith?”

So let me ask you, where is your faith? What does your faith do for you? Does it allow you to do a proverbial backflip in life? Or do you just end up flopping like a chicken every time you leap, due to a lack of faith? Because if your faith doesn’t do anything for you, well, then that’s not really faith at all, is it?