The Jump

Bird watching and sky diving

I pulled this off my dads blog this morning... It so much fun hearing about our skydiving adventure yesterday from his perspective...

Things change as you age. Judson Cornwall used to talk about young love being exciting and old love being soothing. Bi-focals, fake teeth, spare parts and taste buds....speaking of taste buds, hot fudge sundaes can now be interchanged with peas and carrots... and roller coasters with bird watching. Speaking of bird watching, a few years back Mary bought me a bird feeder for Christmas. It was green and had a perch for the birds to sit on and enjoy the sun flower seeds. When the snakes and squirrels jumped on it, it would close. Speaking of snakes, the bird feeder would bring some pretty amazing snakes into the yard as well and that's where the bird feeder became the best of entertainment.

Any-way, I was speaking of Christmas... Joel not knowing the true adventure that could be found in bird feeders thought mom's gift was a little lame. And he purchased a sky diving ticket for me with an expiration date.

Joel lives a little over the top but is hasn't always been that way. His place of being the youngest and cutest kid in the family was stolen from him at the age of twelve. That was when he became the middle child and a whole lot less significant. He fixed all of that by consciously choosing to live life on the edge. So when Joel is around we all are required to live there with him or feel insignificant ourselves. That's why when Joel moved to Africa, it was good for all of us.

But periodically he would come home and everything would change for a couple of weeks. A couple of years back he booked a wild water rafting trip for us all. It was also at Christmas and both the water and air temperature were close to freezing. Anyone who protested at the idea of riding a raft through nearly freezing rapids was quickly labeled and would become the brunt in the newest st

I actually have great memories of white water rafting but they were always in the summer. Needless to say as I am gracefully aging, what I remember as being an exhilarating experience turned into a horror movie.

The scenes of my life passed quickly before my eyes and I knew it was over. I wasn't only freezing to death, I was drowning as I was being swept on my rear end through the last of the number four's and five's in a series of rapids. It was at least the sixth time we had been thrown out of the boat. We couldn't just ride the sane larger boats, no we must experience the river in all of it's power and glory in the smaller, unstable, properly named, rodeo boats. Our guide was primarily interested in the opportunities presented to him when the boat would roll and lose it's occupants. By the last time of throwing us in the water he had proudly learned how to be king of the boat.

After an hour of standing in the hot shower bringing my body temperature back to normal I began to meditate on why I would actually feel compelled to join in the fun when I could be at home watching the birds.

Knowing my love for birds Joel decided that buying me a sky diving ticket would bring him back into his place of honor and respect in the family.

He called the other day and told me it was now or never. The ticket he had purchased a few years back would expire if not used. Reality began to sink in and I knew I had to follow through. It had been haunting me for the past three years.

Only today as I look back can I enjoy what transpired yesterday. I grinned at myself in the mirror this morning.

Yesterday I was plummeting towards earth at one hundred miles an hour with the pain of jet engines screaming in my ears. As the shoot opened and the calm took effect I was in contortions with the pain of not just the sound but the pressure produced from the five thousand foot drop. I have also found that aging has made my ears a whole lot more sensitive. Everything about the experience was uncomfortable. The straps were binding, cutting off the air. My goggles were fogging up, sweat pouring off my face. I was sitting on the lap of a young man for the ten thousand foot climb in a stifling hot 1957 model Sesna, trying to make light talk. "How are the kids. Do to you like jumping?" He mentioned he enjoyed the previous jump with the twenty eight year old hottie on his lap a lot more. I could understand that.

The view out the door was amazing. I was in the zone. Jason was right behind us waiting for us to roll out into the wind. My stomach was in my throat and one, two three we were off. I don't remember seeing any birds on the way down.

Today I am back home with my bird feeder. Mary and I are both relieved to have this experience in our rear view mirror and I'm relishing the memory of my close brush with death again. Joel is coming for a visit next week. I am planning a bird watching expedition. I think he'll like that.

I have started dreaming...again

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28


Dreaming,

When we were young we had visions. We treated them like dreams but most of the time they were visions… God allowed us to live in the ache, be compelled by the longing, chase them down, and fall short… to cast greater vision, to struggle, to taste love, intimacy, and also failure…

And we grew.

And if we chose to not be offended by our failures, to not be ashamed by our short fall, if we chose surrender and intimacy, we began to be transformed by His love. Our hearts began to beat in sync with His, our words began to release heaven and our lives began to yield love - until our vision began to reveal His.

And that’s when our closest and dearest friend, Jesus, comes to us and say’s “dream again”

There is such authority in the dream of the “old” man or woman who has already “dreamed” and failed. Who has risked it all and come up short and been transformed into the likeness of Christ through the process.

“Old man” is not defined by age, but experience; its a heart condition. Its those men and women who have gone “all in” for God and missed it; the “Peters” who used a sword to advance a kingdom that could only be advanced through Jesus becoming the sheath.

Most of us have had a Peter experience. We've carried and acted on a vision or "dream" that ended in failure, in death.

But now, on the other side, when the "visionary" is battered and lonely and the scars are not quite healed, our closest and dearest friend, Jesus, is coming to us and saying, “I want you to dream again”...

Young men have visions so they can learn how to dream. Old men dream and the power of that dreaming releases heaven into the atmosphere.

A true dream, one that is birthed in the heart of an “Old Man”, carries with it authority and power. The person who has experienced the death of a vision, who has laid the dream on the cross, has access to the power of the resurrection. When he dreams again, he dreams the dreams of heaven. A dream that is birthed in heaven has power to transform earth, it can change a city, a nation, it has eternal significance.

Jesus said "greater works" and told us that his heart in us was dreaming beyond "what we could ask or imagine." Jesus life on earth, the high water mark that no one has yet attained, is meant to be surpassed!

I believe one way it is surpassed is when “old men” are willing to dream in the area of past failure. This is the place where the dreams carry the power of the resurrection.

Start dreaming again, we need you!

Imaginary Jesus

So I read “Imaginary Jesus.” It was given to me in the hope that I might read it... and then share my thoughts…

If you thought Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi” episode was funny then you will enjoy Matt’s irreverent sense of humor. I smiled out loud a couple times! This guy is someone you would want to watch old episodes of “Highway to Heaven” with. In fact, that’s not a bad idea Matt, “Mystery Science Theater 4000 with Matt Mikalatos”

The book follows Matt’s journey from religion to relationship. Along the way Matt pokes fun at all the ugly religious idols in his life and maybe in the life of his reader as well.

In the book, Matt struggles with a painful experience and countless interactions with religion. He finds that he has settled for an imaginary Jesus instead of the intimate indwelling presence of Jesus. Matt’s biggest struggle however, is the age old struggle wrapped up in "that" question, the one that snags unbelievers (both saved and unsaved), the one that screams at us after we have experienced hurt, disappointment or heartache. The question? “How can a good God allow bad things to happen.”

In the end Matt experiences Gods one of a kind love for him and his family - A love that is always good, that redeems and restores even if it doesn’t answer every question, even if it doesn’t answer “that” question.

Matt doesn’t really answer “that” question either. Instead he learns to live in the wonder and pain and risk and mystery. He begins to live loved and finds, that even in the hard seasons, God is good and his love is enough.

Funny and insightful, I enjoyed the read.

Thanks Matt!