When I was little, I used to be a gymnast. It came to me that my faith in God should be like when I was a kid in gymnastics..
Whenever I did a tumbling run, doing my flips, I would just leap without worry.
As kids, we’re fearless. Kids act without thinking. I would just go for it, with joy in my heart because I loved what I was doing. I’d run and jump and flip over and over again, each time with utter and complete confidence that I would land on my feet. I would just leap and know that my flips would be successful and better than the last try. There was never any thought or fear that I could fall, stumble or get hurt. I was just happy doing what I loved to do, and believed that everything would work out and my flips would get better and better with practice.
Most of the time I just joyfully went for it without a thought or a care in my mind. But the split second I would think about what I was doing, allowing even a nanosecond of doubt to enter my mind, I would inevitably fall. Every. Time.
It reminds me of the story in the Bible (Matthew 14:22), where Jesus walks on water. The disciples were in a boat a considerable distance from land, when a storm arose and began buffeting them around with wind and waves.
Jesus walked towards the boat, walking on the water of the lake. The disciples were afraid and thought they were seeing a ghost. So one of the disciples, Peter, said Lord, if that’s You, tell me to come out on the water, and Jesus said, “Come.”
So Peter fixed his eyes on Jesus, and without a doubt in his mind, got out of the boat and actually started walking on the water towards Jesus! But within a few seconds, he realized what he was doing, saw the waves, felt the wind, and in that second, doubt took over, and he immediately began to sink.
“Lord, save me!” he yelled over the wind of the storm. Jesus grabbed his hand and pulled him up and out of the water. “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” said the Lord.
When they got back into the boat, the wind calmed and all the disciples were in awe and said, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”
Jesus is telling us as He told His disciples, if we wholeheartedly believe and have faith, we can do miraculous things too. One of His disciples had enough faith to climb out of a boat during a storm and attempt to walk on water! Now that’s some serious faith! And he was actually doing it! But then he allowed the thought of how impossible it was for a human to do such a thing, and he immediately sank into the water, drowning, because he couldn’t swim. He called out to Jesus for help and Jesus reached out and pulled him out of trouble.
It was like this when I did gymnastics. I could do great flips, jumping even higher than my spotters (trainers) could reach with their outstretched arms. But doubt could creep into my mind in a millisecond, and then I would come crashing to the ground. But when I took that leap of faith without thinking, without a doubt in my mind, my moves would turn out perfectly.
I can apply this to my adult life too. When I overthink things, the fear can either mess up what I’m trying to do, or stop me from even trying at all. But if I put my complete trust in God and take that leap of faith, following my heart in what I want to do, stepping out boldly and confidently, putting aside my fears and doubts about what could go wrong, then I will usually succeed.
And if I’m doing things in faith, then no matter what the result is, I can be confident in knowing that the outcome comes from God, because He was there right beside me the whole time. So invite God into everything you attempt to do, and wholeheartedly trust that He will guide your every move, so that everything will work out perfectly according to His plan.
It may not always work out to be exactly what you planned or how you imagined, but whenever that’s the case, it will always be so much better in the end. Your job is to just trust. The Bible tells us to have the faith of a child. Just like I did when I was a little fearless gymnast.