Last year, Feilx Baumgartner set a world record for highest skydive (over 24 miles above the earth’s surface). Tens of millions of people watched the clip of this breathtaking event.
To one up themselves, GoPro released a new video this week that has drawn the same sort of attention that the first video did. Watching Baumgartner step out onto that platform left, even this guy who isn’t afraid of heights, with a pounding heart. I was on the edge of my seat. It was the exact same event, yet, I was just as engaged as I was when I saw the first video.
This time around, something new stuck out to me. It was Baumgarter’s words as he stepped out onto that platform, “I’m coming home.” It was certainly meant to be inspiring, and it was. It helped move us out onto that platform, as he felt so far away from earth, and as he gazed down upon the vast deserts of New Mexico…even that felt more like home than the silent stillness of space.
Do you ever feel this way? Often times we’re surrounded by people that we feel don’t get us. Whether at work or school, or even sometimes at home, we can feel that we’re not at home. It could be as simple as people don’t share our affinity for the arts or a certain sports team, but it can often run deeper than that. Sometimes life can feel like you’re just on the worst date ever…where you know from the gate that this isn’t going to go anywhere.
There are two reasons I felt nervous when Baumgardner’s stepped out onto that platform: 1) That’s super high up…what if his parachute doesn’t work? and 2) I’ve felt that separation before…that distance from home can feel vast which means that the journey will be brutal…potentially even fatal.
Now, to clarify, I’m not speaking of heading back to the city where I grew up. I’m speaking of the distance we often feel from God. It, too, can possess a vastness that seems insurmountable. Standing on the precipice of our relationship with God, peering down into what real life looks like…life with God…life without the protection of material to hide our real selves from the “elements”…where we can be our “real selves”. This view brings butterflies in ways that can be hard to handle, because we know that on our own…we won’t make it if we approach God’s holy throne (think Baumgarter without the fancy space suit nor a parachute…the results look pretty much the same and they aren’t pretty). That feeling of distance and being out of place is actually a good one, because it reminds us that we walk around with this barrier between us and our Creator. We look to find love and acceptance in the hearts of our fellow man, but he is wholly incapable of loving us perfectly. The constant need for him to show us grace and vice versa is merely a reminder that something just isn’t right…he is not my creator…I’m not fully known in his presence.
Perfect love and acceptance can only be found in the arms of the one true God. He created you in His image, so He knows you forwards and backwards…he gets you more than you get you. His presence is the only place we’ll actually be satisfied because we are understood and truly belong.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…” Ephesians 2:13-14
Still feeling a separation from God…like He’s too far off? Maybe you’re a prodigal child who now realizes that your choices in life haven’t brought you joy, and that only God possesses truly satisfying joy…but peering down off that platform…it just feels like it’s not worth it. Our little balloon ship ain’t so bad and it could make a nice home for a while. We live life torn between living in our sin (balloon ship…separated from real life), and living where we were created to live…in God’s kingdom…washed clean by Jesus (earth…where we can have abundant life). This tension keeps us on the platform twiddling our thumbs hoping for a third option that will never come. Well, if you sense a separation from God…good…that’s because you, like me, are a sinner. But don’t let the fear of dying scare you…Jesus specializes in resurrection. He brings us off the platform down safely to our home…in God’s kingdom. It may seem like a scary leap…and it will be full of uncertainty and risk…but just like Baumgartner saw…life away from home is no life at all.
todd niebling 