The Journey 296
Read: Genesis 22, Mathew 14
Fear is one of the major obstacle in an individuals quest to create landmarks and create new avenues of achievement in life. Once we are able to conquer our fears then we will be able to move from the level of mediocrity to excellence in life. Last week an attempt by an Austrian sky diver points to this fact. Space Jumper Felix Baumgartner created history when he jumped to earth from the stratosphere[ jumping from a helium balloon from about 128,000 feet] and making him the first man to break the speed of sound in free fall. His free fall took only about four minutes and 22 seconds. As he was about to jump, the mission control told him “Our guardian angel will take care you”. He was wearing a specially designed survival jacket that kept his body intact against the varying pressure that marked his drop back to earth. It is said that without this survival kit, his blood would have boiled and his lungs could have exploded. With this jump, Baumgartner broke a 52 year old sky diving record. The previous record was held by a US Air Force Col Joe Kittinger who jumped from 102, 800 feet in 1960 and is actually Baumgartner’s mentor. He created also multiple records, breaking records for the highest free fall and the highest manned balloon flight. Baumgartner spent almost five in years in training for this mission which was basically designed to improve human understanding of how body copes with extreme condition at the edge of space. Baumgartner is person who has done daring acts in the past. He is a former paratrooper and has parachuted off from skyscrapers and mountains and also once into a 600 foot cave. After this record jump, Baumgartner wants to inspire a generation so that some one else could break his record and he wants to sit next to him just the way Kittinger his mentor was sitting next to him. As I wrote earlier, here is the daring adventures of a man who is ready to let go his fear factor and then take the plunge with hope and assurance. When I think of this historic jump, I am forced to believe that this jump represents to me the concept of faith in Christian life. Faith can be present only when the fear factor is gone and when fear factor is gone that is when we develop and grow in our faith and in our trust of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think that is what God also expects from us.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 22 and Mathew 14: 22-33. We are using two biblical portions because you have two characters in the Bible who show contrasting attitude to their concept of fear and bring out precious lessons about faith. In Genesis 22, you find Abraham who is the first character in our mediation. A person who gets a child after 100 years of his life is asked to sacrifice that son. One can imagine the plight, the agony and the mental anguish that he went through as he walked with his son on their journey to Moriah, to the mountain that he was supposed to sacrifice. The fear of the future and helplessness at the strange request of God combined into one. But as far as Abraham was concerned it was faith and not fear that ruled his life. May be for matter of time, fear may have overtaken him, but ultimately faith took over. It is this that makes Abraham to go ahead without any murmur to do what God wanted in his life. Faith in the trust that God is good and He know what is best for me. On the other hand in Mathew 14 you find the character of Peter who is also trying to develop faith in his life. As he sees Jesus walking on water, he also wants to try this extraordinary feat. A feat which requires total faith and trust in the Lord and that is why Jesus tells Peter to come and walk on the water toward him. Peter takes the first few steps in faith but then after a few steps more than faith it is fear that takes control of him. In the life of Abraham you find faith overcoming fear, while in the life of Peter you find fear overcoming faith. I think we all are either like Abraham or Peter. God wants to explore the wide avenues of life so that we can be co workers with God, showing to the world what human being can do in relationship with God. But if that has to happen what is needed in our life is to let go of our confirmed and unconfirmed fears in life and trust in God, in His plan, purpose and in His providence. This is not something that we can do all of a sudden. Baumgartner took five years in training to do this historic jump and in the same way we need to daily train ourselves in our growth of faith and knowledge of our Lord [ Eph 4: 15] so that we also could achieve mighty things for our Lord.
Let us think is it fear that rules our life or is our life governed by faith principles?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Fear is one of the major obstacle in an individuals quest to create landmarks and create new avenues of achievement in life. Once we are able to conquer our fears then we will be able to move from the level of mediocrity to excellence in life. Last week an attempt by an Austrian sky diver points to this fact. Space Jumper Felix Baumgartner created history when he jumped to earth from the stratosphere[ jumping from a helium balloon from about 128,000 feet] and making him the first man to break the speed of sound in free fall. His free fall took only about four minutes and 22 seconds. As he was about to jump, the mission control told him “Our guardian angel will take care you”. He was wearing a specially designed survival jacket that kept his body intact against the varying pressure that marked his drop back to earth. It is said that without this survival kit, his blood would have boiled and his lungs could have exploded. With this jump, Baumgartner broke a 52 year old sky diving record. The previous record was held by a US Air Force Col Joe Kittinger who jumped from 102, 800 feet in 1960 and is actually Baumgartner’s mentor. He created also multiple records, breaking records for the highest free fall and the highest manned balloon flight. Baumgartner spent almost five in years in training for this mission which was basically designed to improve human understanding of how body copes with extreme condition at the edge of space. Baumgartner is person who has done daring acts in the past. He is a former paratrooper and has parachuted off from skyscrapers and mountains and also once into a 600 foot cave. After this record jump, Baumgartner wants to inspire a generation so that some one else could break his record and he wants to sit next to him just the way Kittinger his mentor was sitting next to him. As I wrote earlier, here is the daring adventures of a man who is ready to let go his fear factor and then take the plunge with hope and assurance. When I think of this historic jump, I am forced to believe that this jump represents to me the concept of faith in Christian life. Faith can be present only when the fear factor is gone and when fear factor is gone that is when we develop and grow in our faith and in our trust of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think that is what God also expects from us.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from Genesis 22 and Mathew 14: 22-33. We are using two biblical portions because you have two characters in the Bible who show contrasting attitude to their concept of fear and bring out precious lessons about faith. In Genesis 22, you find Abraham who is the first character in our mediation. A person who gets a child after 100 years of his life is asked to sacrifice that son. One can imagine the plight, the agony and the mental anguish that he went through as he walked with his son on their journey to Moriah, to the mountain that he was supposed to sacrifice. The fear of the future and helplessness at the strange request of God combined into one. But as far as Abraham was concerned it was faith and not fear that ruled his life. May be for matter of time, fear may have overtaken him, but ultimately faith took over. It is this that makes Abraham to go ahead without any murmur to do what God wanted in his life. Faith in the trust that God is good and He know what is best for me. On the other hand in Mathew 14 you find the character of Peter who is also trying to develop faith in his life. As he sees Jesus walking on water, he also wants to try this extraordinary feat. A feat which requires total faith and trust in the Lord and that is why Jesus tells Peter to come and walk on the water toward him. Peter takes the first few steps in faith but then after a few steps more than faith it is fear that takes control of him. In the life of Abraham you find faith overcoming fear, while in the life of Peter you find fear overcoming faith. I think we all are either like Abraham or Peter. God wants to explore the wide avenues of life so that we can be co workers with God, showing to the world what human being can do in relationship with God. But if that has to happen what is needed in our life is to let go of our confirmed and unconfirmed fears in life and trust in God, in His plan, purpose and in His providence. This is not something that we can do all of a sudden. Baumgartner took five years in training to do this historic jump and in the same way we need to daily train ourselves in our growth of faith and knowledge of our Lord [ Eph 4: 15] so that we also could achieve mighty things for our Lord.
Let us think is it fear that rules our life or is our life governed by faith principles?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla