We live in a fallen world, and failure, disappointment, and pain will unfortunately be part of our journey. If you’ve been listening to the news then you know a man named Felix Baumgartner skydived from the edge of outer space, breaking the sound barrier. Foe 4 1/2 minutes he went into a head over heels death spin, causing friends and family to fear he wouldn’t survive. Being born into this fallen world at war is like jumping from a wonderfully warm safe place into a skydive from the edge of outer space. There are many times during this scary journey that we fall into death spins, and sadly many, even Christians, who are uniquely equipped for skydiving, never pull out. The gravitational pull of childhood pain, and patterns of shame, and performance, as well as present tense trauma and discouragement defines reality, and becomes too overwhelming.
Listen to these amazing verses in Romans 8:35-38
35 Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?
36 Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors [m]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things [n]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,
39 Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Being confident in God’s love; feeling continuously cherished by Him, keeps us from irreversible death spins. John discovered that he was “The disciple whom Jesus was always loving” as a young man while laying his head on the breast of Jesus, that became his true identity, and constantly reality the rest of his long life. In his mid 90’s, some sixty years after his life altering discovery, he still , in Revelation 1:5 referred to Christ as the One who IS always loving us. For over sixty years, exposed to much pain and heartbreak, he lived as a surpassing victor everyday, knowing, and feeling cherished by Jesus. Experiencing the fascinating love of God on a personal level, makes the dive come alive with wonder, and expectation.