Cliff Jumping

This past summer I did something I had never done before. I went cliff jumping… well, at least the southern Indiana version of it. My wife and I have friends who have access to an abandoned stripper pit that is perfect for such an activity. (For those of you not from coal mining country, let me assure you that a stripper pit has nothing to do with topless dancers! Just think: long, narrow, deep lake with high, steep rock walls on each side.) Those who know me well know that I get basically zero enjoyment out of anything that has to do with getting wet, but there is also an adventurous side of me, and so the opportunity to climb around on rocks, shimmy up trees, and rely on loosely anchored vines to “safely” glide from one place to the next on the side of a steeply inclined rocky surface before jumping two or three stories down like a crazy person was enough incentive for me to put up with getting wet.

So… I went along, and IT WAS AWESOME! I had a blast. It was incredibly cool, after a really challenging climb up the side of the rock wall, to look down at the twisted, crisscrossed path I took to get to my jumping point and realize, “Yeah, I just conquered that!”

But I quickly learned two things. First, I learned that it is a way more intimidating to stand at the top and look down than it was to look up from below. Next, I learned that once you’re at the top you really don’t have much of a choice about what to do next. So you can hem and haw, fret and fuss, and freak out all you want, but unless you plan on living the rest of your life standing on that one foot square ledge 30 feet above the water below, sooner or later you are going to have to jump. After all, the purpose of cliff jumping isn’t just to get to the top. The purpose is to get to the top AND JUMP! All of the courage-mustering and fear-facing, the testing and grabbing and stepping your way up, all of that is for the express purpose of standing up on the ledge, looking down, and taking that oh-so-exhilarating plunge into the cool waters below. So what do you do? You take a deep breath, bend your knees just enough to spring back up, and you go for it!

Over the last few weeks I have been thinking that we often have a lot of opportunities for cliff jumping—the proverbial kind—in life, and Michelle and I have been faced with a big one recently. You see, in a lot of ways we have spent the better part of the last 18 months grabbing, pulling, and stepping our way up the side of this big rock cliff in front of us. Even without knowing what the eventual destination looked like, we have been working our way up, hoping our view of the top becomes a little more clear with each move. And that’s just what happened. As little by little we made our way higher, bits and pieces of the picture began to come together, and we found ourselves become more and more certain of God’s leading. As we pushed upward, with each grasp of the sandstone rock we were able to more clearly see his plan unfolding. Then, after what seemed like an exhausting journey, we made it to the top. In our case, the top came in the form of a formal call being issued, a job offer being presented.

Then… the time came for the decision (*cue dramatic sound effect here*). Though the answer couldn’t have been clearer to us, it was anything but easy. We spent a lot of time thinking of all we would give up, all we would leave behind, all it would cost in terms of dollars and relationships and stress and change, all of the things that may never be the same… and at the very same time we were thinking of all we would gain, all we would get in terms of new opportunities and relationships and experiences. And as I said before, we knew the point of the exercise, the purpose of the journey, wasn’t just to get to the top. So next thing you know we were bending our knees ever so slightly and pushing off, all the way to Albuquerque, NM. (That’s a 1,216 mile jump. Just in case you’re curious. Which you probably aren't.)

I’d be lying if I said we aren’t the least bit nervous. Or sad. Or scared. But I’d also be lying if I said we weren’t super excited. And joyful. And confident that we are doing exactly what God is calling us to do, following the path he has set before us, and appreciating all of the pieces he has been putting in place over a long period of time to prepare us and to make it all possible.

So yeah… we’re moving to Albuquerque.