Plumbers and Parachutes

Today I am waiting for the plumber.  He is supposed to be here between 8am and 1pm so I am home... waiting... checking facebook... monitoring the Olympics... talking to the rabbit... important stuff!  I am should be on the treadmill, but instead I am drinking a cup of green tea and updating the website.  The man on the Today show said that green tea will increase my metabolism and writing makes me feel like I've accomplished something, but I think I will have to face the treadmill sooner or later.

I heard an analogy that I wanted to share with you.  It involves parachutes and salvation.
If you get on an airplane and someone offers you a parachute and says, "If you wear this, it will make your flight better," you might put it on.  But after a while it would start to get uncomfortable.  It would be hard to sit back in your seat.  The people around you without parachutes would start making fun of you.  You would get tired of being different.  So you might take the parachute off and throw it down and say, "This is stupid.  It's not making my trip better at all.  It's making it worse!"
Now supposed you get on an airplane and someone offers you a parachute and says, "At some point during this trip you will have to jump out of the airplane and this parachute will save your life."  You would put it on.  It would be uncomfortable, but you wouldn't take it off.  People might make fun of you, but you wouldn't take it off.  The stewardess might spill hot coffee on you, but you wouldn't blame the parachute and throw it down.  The pain and discomfort you feel during the flight would only make you look forward to getting out of the plane.  You would hang on to your parachute no matter what happened because you are not trusting the parachute to make your flight better, you are trusting the parachute to save your life.
It's the same with Jesus.  If the only reason you are trusting Jesus is because he will make your life better, then when things get uncomfortable or when you are in pain, you will blame him for not delivering what you expected.  And you might reject Him and say "This is stupid.  It's not making my life better at all.  It's making it worse!"  BUT if the reason you trust Jesus is to save you, then you will cling to him when things get uncomfortable; when you stand out as different; when pain and suffering comes.  And all of those things will not make you reject him, but instead they will make you look forward to getting out of the plane.

Buried deep beneath
All our broken dreams
we have this hope:

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
For we know, joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning, beauty will rise

I can hear it in the distance
and it's not too far away.
It's the music and the laughter
of a wedding and a feast.
I can almost feel the hand of God
reaching for my face
to wipe the tears away, and say,
"It's time to make everything new."

This is our hope.
This is the promise.
That it would take our breath away
to see the beauty that's been made
out of the ashes...

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of this darkness... new life will shine
and we'll know the joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning...beauty will rise!

(Stephen Curtis Chapman, Beauty Will Rise)