Final Leap. Photo: blmurch/flickr CC
Reaching for God
Richard Bauman illustrates a relationship based on trust
For a moment, imagine yourself as a trapeze artist. You grasp the trapeze bar, kick off from the platform, and swing out into space. You manoeuvre into position, hanging from the bar by your knees. You swing back and forth, gaining momentum as you go higher and higher. Then, at precisely the right moment, you release from the bar and fly into the air, totally unconnected to anything and anyone. You know it’s only for a second or two, because you trust that your catcher will be in the right place, at just the right moment to catch you. Do you trust God as much as a trapeze flyer trusts her catcher?
A successful trapeze act depends on trust between the flyer and the catcher. That doesn’t mean that the flyer is fearless. She can’t stop her inborn fear of falling. But the successful flyer doesn’t yield to it. She simply trusts the catcher.
Among aerialists there’s an unwritten rule that the flyer must not look for the catcher. Instead she must focus on a spot high above her, so as to reach maximum height. She can’t fly as high as she needs to while at the same time looking for the catcher. When tricks are complicated and the flyer is tumbling, twisting, and somersaulting through the air, she has no time to look for the catcher. When she exits the trick her body and arms are outstretched, ready to be caught. As she starts falling towards the ground she is still looking up and waiting, anticipating the catcher’s strong hands grabbing and holding onto her forearms.
The flyer doesn’t have to see her partner. She knows that they will be in exactly the right place, at exactly the right instant, to snatch her out of the air. She knows that her catcher has the strength and ability to hold her through the rest of the routine, until she can return to her trapeze bar, or drop safely to the net below.
Even if the flyer could look for the catcher, they would be working at odds with one another. Instead of making it easier to be caught, the flyer would make it more difficult. Doubt or a lack of trust would make the flyer look for the catcher. The flyer can still doubt, even though the catcher has caught her during past performances.
Aren’t we like a trapeze flyer and God like our catcher? He promises to be faithful to our needs. He assures us He will ‘catch us’ when we need to be caught – we only have to trust. Sometimes, instead of trusting, we try to manipulate ourselves into catching Him. But catching God doesn’t work. Where God is concerned, we have to have the trust of the trapeze flyer. We do our part faithfully and then trust we will be caught, never doubting that at precisely the right moment God’s strong hands will grip us even though we never see Him. All we have to do is fly towards Him and let Him catch us, every time.
