Leap of Faith

Dear Son,

As you know, I grew up and spent the first 25 years of my life in The Great Northwest. I have always loved spending time in the mountains and in the evergreen forests up in that area of the country, and as of yet, I haven’t found a better way to enjoy the mountains than on a snowboard. When I first learned to snowboard in high school, I learned some very painful lessons about how to stay upright and how to fall without hurting myself too bad. I’d be lying if I told you I was ever a great snowboarder, but over time I learned how to make it from the top of the mountain to the bottom without getting hurt and without totally falling behind my friends.

I also learned a few things about life while exploring various mountains and resorts with my friends. While I was in college I had a pretty tight knit group of friends that I would always go snowboarding with. Sometimes it would just be 4 or 5 of us and sometimes we would round up a bigger gang. On one trip we had about 10 guys and one girl. I’ll be honest and tell you that pretty much everyone with us was better than me, even the girl. But I didn’t mind because it made me push myself and improve.

We were having a great time until someone mentioned this great cliff they knew that we could jump off. So we all followed him down the mountain to a designated spot and then prepared to launch off of this 15-20 foot cliff. But the tricky thing about it was, that you couldn’t really see where you were going. My instructions were, “Pick up some speed, head between those two trees and don’t hesitate or you won’t clear the rocks below.” I watched all my friends disappear one by one between the two trees and into oblivion. I was seriously debating just bagging it altogether and riding around the side and forgoing the cliff, but then the girl went and I knew I had no choice.

Pretty soon, it was my turn. I knew that as soon as I started down the mountain there was no turning back. Reluctantly I aimed my board between the two trees and started moving. As I picked up speed, every part of me screamed to slow down, after all, I couldn’t even see where I was headed, I didn’t know when the ground was going to drop out from underneath me, and I had no idea where I was going to land. But the one thing I did know, was that if I hesitated and slowed down, I might not clear the jagged rocks and make it safely to the soft powder below.

So I bombed through the trees down the narrow path and before I knew it I was flying through the air for just an instant, and in the next instant I was tumbling and cart wheeling down the mountain. One of my buddies, told me later that I looked like a 2x4 bouncing down the stairs. But eventually I came to a stop and I was just fine. I even went back a second time because the video camera we had didn’t catch it the first time around.

In the years since this experience I’ve come to realize that my situation on the mountain translates into many aspects of our lives. Throughout your life you are going to have a lot of decisions to make. And the thing about decisions is, you don’t always get to choose the consequence of your decision. You can hope for a certain result, but every decision you make carries with it an unknown future. But I’ve learned that if you are going to commit to something, like riding off a cliff, you better commit 100% or you might not clear the rocks and make it to the soft powder.

In the book of Revelations in the New Testament it says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Some people try to make it through life being lukewarm about everything, they never really commit 100% to anyone or anything because they are afraid of the unknown. But what they don’t realize is that they are sabotaging everything they touch, and so they move from one failure to another. And each time they don’t quite clear the rocks and make it to the powder they get a little beat up and are a little more reluctant the next time around. This is no way to live.

It is my hope, and my challenge to you to be either cold or hot. Make sure you are aimed between the trees and just go for it. Don’t hesitate, because that hesitation could be disastrous. If you are going to do something, make sure you do it well, and give it 100%.