Jump!

A young boy went with his father to a swimming pool. The little boy was not a very good swimmer and so his father very lovingly and carefully fastened a life jacket around the boy so that he would feel safe.
The father then got into the water and started swimming around. After a while he looked up and noticed that his son still stood at the edge of the pool looking in. Being the loving father that he was, the father swam over to the boy and held out his arms.
"Jump to me. I won't let you drown!"
The little boy stood there for some time listening as his father continued to tell him to jump and that he wouldn't let his son drown. Then the boy made a decision. Instead of trusting his father and jumping, the little boy turned around and bolted from the side of the pool, got as far away as he could, and refused go in.
How do you think that father felt? That Father felt like a failure because his son didn't trust him enough to know that if he jumped, dad would catch him.
The little boy had an irrational fear that his father wouldn't catch him because he was blinded by the fear of the water. Nothing his father said to him would change his mind about the water. He refused to trust.
How are we with trusting God?
So often we try to figure things out for ourselves. We go from day to day worrying about where the money is coming from and going. We worry about things on the news. We are natural worriers. It's in our blood. We pass it down from generation to generation without giving it another thought. But let me ask again. How are we with Trusting God?
I have recently been challenged by this true story that I have just told you about the little boy and his father, and trusting God.
I heard on the radio this morning an interesting statement. Most everyone believes in God. It is very easy to believe in God. It is much much hard to believe God.
God, our Father, stands in the pool of life His arms out wide calling to us to jump because He will catch us and won't let us drown. We, on the other hand, stand at the edge of the pool with our life jackets on and shake our heads before turning around and high tailing it out of there.
We refuse to believe that God will catch us if we jump, but instead that He will watch us jump and then get out of the way so that we will go splat right into the water and drown. We have lost our trust in God.
Are we willing to put our faith back in a loving Father who would never under any circumstances let us drown? Are we willing to jump into His arms and let Him do the rest?
May we all be instead like the small child who stands on the stairs and sees his father walking by and shouts "Daddy, catch me!" before jumping into the waiting arms of a father he knew would catch him and wouldn't let him get hurt.