The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. —Nahum 1:7 (kjv)
Every so often I watch the video of me on YouTube and I still can’t quite believe my eyes. Carol recorded it on her phone and posted it, calling the grainy thirty seconds “Rick Gets Caught.”
Our friend Stacy had invited us to her birthday party, which involved a small group of couples gathering at a tent on the edge of town to go trapezing. That’s right. A bunch of middle-aged adults flying through the air with the greatest of ease like some circus performers ...or not.
I took one look at the ladder that went up to the platform twenty-three feet above ground and said, “No way am I going up there.” “Try it just once,” Stacy urged. “You can just hang from the bar and swing.” Maybe just once, but I wasn’t about to let my hands off the bar.
Let me assure you, there was a capacious net under the swinging trapeze and professional instructors attaching harnesses to us. We couldn’t really fall. But that was hard to remember when I mounted the ladder, grabbed the bar and pushed off. I swung back and forth and dropped into the net.
“Do it again, so you can learn how to be caught,” Stacy insisted. “I don’t know...” “Just try.” I went up that ladder three more times to get the shot Carol filmed. There I am, swinging out over the net, flipping to my knees, then reaching out and getting caught by a pro. The part that’s most instructive is how hesitant I am to let go. The pro has me in his grip, but I don’t want to unhook my legs from the bar. It looks like he had to pull me off.
One of the benefits of having that thirty-second clip is I can look at it when I’m in a risk-averse mood, like when I need to make a difficult phone call or reach out to someone who might not welcome it.
The thing is, when you leap forward into the unknown and let yourself fly free, things always seem to work out. You just have to let go.
