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Parachute Drop and Faith
A Parachute Drop and Faith
A Parachute Drop at an amusement park is a ride that lifts you up vertically, and yet angled, hundreds of feet in the air. The mechanism holding you suspended in mid-air is released. Then you drop and swing from side to side until the momentum ceases.
When my daughters were in high-school, I took both on the ride. When I took the younger one, she stoically stayed silent the entire time until we got off the ride. Then she simply said, “That was fun”.
A few years before, the older one had a different reaction. More accurately, different reactions. I had been challenged by other high-school students to try this ride. I was a chaperone. Of course my ego said yes! Someone ran to get my older daughter. Shockingly she wanted to ride it with me! As we are being lifted hundreds of feet in the air, she softly says, “Papa, I love you!” Just in case these were the last words she ever spoke! When the lever is released, she screams in terror as we swing away! Then as we swing back she screams in delight!
This reminds me of two passages in Titus. In 1:13, Paul uses the phrase, “sound in THE faith”. In 2:2 Paul leaves out the definite article, “sound in faith”.
My older daughter had faith in the mechanism of the ride and in me – THE faith. If she didn’t, she never would have gotten on. But it became personally real when she got on the ride – faith.
As believers we have faith in the “mechanism” of the gospel – in Jesus and the facts of the gospel. Living through perilous times tests how faithful we are to THE faith. The more sound in THE faith, the more sound in faith. Trust that Jesus has you even when you are falling.
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