Stepping Out In Faith

My wife and I don’t have children yet. However, once a week we have the privilege of meeting with 4 other couples, 2 of which have 16-month-old little girls, Emma and Anna. So each Tuesday night we get to enjoy the fun of having these little girls around us, without any of the stress. We get to experience all of the after dinner fun without any of the trauma of bath and bedtime. It’s a great situation for us.
A few weeks ago it was our turn to host dinner. We had our meal and bible study while the girls played patiently…as patient as you could expect 2 toddlers to be. As we were finishing up, Emma and Anna were naturally getting a little restless and were ready to break loose. Chris, Emma’s father, and I were sitting in the living room talking when Emma runs in the room and begins to climb on our ottoman. She slowly tiptoes from my side of the ottoman to the edge of the side where her father was sitting. Just as quick as she makes eye contact with Chris, she holds her arms to the sky and began to free fall in his direction. He quickly lunges forward and catches her, saving her from a nice little fall on our wooden floor. She begins to squeal, laughing like this was the most fun that a little girl could ever possibly have. I was shocked at first, but it quickly became apparent to me that it wasn’t even a thought in her little mind that he might not be there to catch her.
Then it hit me. God wants us to have that same kind of faith in Him. Just like Emma’s earthly father was there to catch her, our Heavenly father will be there to catch us. But He can only do so if we are willing to step out in faith.
We are all scared of uncertainty. For many of us, there is nothing more intimidating than the unknown. There are many times when God asks us to step out of our comfort zone, into a scary situation. He never asks us to do this alone; He is always going to be there to catch us.
This is often easier said than done. It’s easy to talk about changing jobs, but when it comes time to have that awkward conversation with our boss where we put in our 2-week notice, it gets a whole lot tougher. It’s easy to talk about going back to school, but when it’s time to start registering for classes, doing homework, and studying for tests, you can begin to doubt your decision. It’s easy to think about asking your girlfriend to marry you, but when it’s time to go ring shopping, it’s natural to start second-guessing yourself. These are the times when God is telling us to jump. And He would never lead us to something only to leave us alone to fall on our faces.
To Emma, stepping off of that ottoman is to walk out into uncertainty and step into the unknown. But she does know one thing; her father will be there to catch her. We need to show this same faith in our own lives. For us, it obviously isn’t going to be walking off of a table for our dad to catch us, but it might be starting a new job, having kids, or buying our first home. Taking these steps can be scary, but with our Father being there to catch us, what do we have to be afraid of?