Jump!

I think this warm weather we're experiencing has got me a little excited for summer! Any of my roommates will attest to this as I think they feel as though I started wearing shorts long before it was warm enough! Anyhow, as I have mused upon summer the last few days while sitting in class, swimming has crossed my mind. Memories have come back as I have thought about swimming. These have included remembering taking swim lessons in Luling, Dad forcing me to stick with Willowdale swim team, and swimming with the fellas in the Bogue Falya. However, the memory of swim lessons has really stood out to me.

As a little guy, I can remember that the last part of swim lessons was always jumping off the diving board into the deep end. I was always really excited to do it, but was at first way too scared to jump. I can remember making it to the end of the board, looking over the edge at the expectant life guard waiting to catch me, and then feeling suddenly overcome by the urge to use the bathroom (aka not jump)! Each day, the lifeguard would gently reassure me that he would catch me, but I just wasn't quite ready to believe him. I can remember my mind running through all the various ways that he could miss catching me--resulting in my drowning. However one day, I just decided to trust him and jump! It was exhilarating as I fell from the board, still very uncertain that I would live more than the next few seconds, but then he caught me!

In Alma 32 we read of the story of the poor of Zarahemla learning about faith from Alma. These people had endeavored to build their own synagogues alongside the more affluent members of their society but upon completion, these indigent people were denied access to these very synagogues. It was during this time that Alma came to teach them the true gospel. In his discourse on faith Alma teaches, that a major part of faith is being willing to "awake and arouse your faculties, even to experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith" (Alma 32:27). He goes on to say that by so doing, the people would begin to feel that what they had learned was true and their faith would grow.

This means a lot to me because recently, I feel as though the Lord has been encouraging me to act but I have been scared to--much like on the diving board, I have allowed myself to be immobilized by fear. However, as I have read this and pondered this idea, it has occurred to me that God is even more likely than some minimum-wage paid lifeguard teaching swim lessons to catch me when I act on His counsel. By finally jumping as a boy in swim lessons, I learned to trust that lifeguard, and I think the principle is the same with God. If we want to trust/have faith in Him, we must jump first.

I will just say that I intend to make a jump in my life now, and I hope that for any of you who are feeling as though they may be suppressing a prompting to act, that you will decide to jump as well. God loves us. He wants us to become more than we currently are. However, I do not think we can gain faith in either of those statements without first trying a little on our end. So in the words of Edward Van Halen's band, "might as well jump"!