Jump

"Jump," whispered the Spirit,  "Jump."

Jumping is tricky.  It is something  everyone would like to do but

Tales of failure, 
Groans of disaster,  
Gusts of hatred, 
And tons of fear,

prevent us.  

None of us  like hearing, I told you so. You should have stuck with what you know best.

So, we let ourselves be lulled into false contentment and force ourselves to be happy with where we don't want to be.  

Jumping looks negative, and it could be if we haven't done our homework.  By that, I mean our research on the integrity or character of what or where we are  about to jump.

There are people out there who will try to discourage you before you jump,

Who don't want you to be an individual, 
Who love to persuade and deceive, 
And they will  distract you when you are busy doing what you know you are supposed to do,
If you let them.  

They utter such things as,

Stop jumping around, I am talking to you,
Will you be still and look at what I'm doing.  
You don't care anymore. 

Jumpy ignites the warning bell within us. We don't feel good about something we are about to do, although everybody else is doing it.  How many people  have hurt others, or tried to cheat the system, or did something they knew they were not supposed to do, and they had gotten jumpy before they did it. Jumpiness will warn us,  but it does stop us.

Jump demands obedience. It makes us leave our comfort zone. We act  or move in a direction with uncertainty. We jump up, and in mid air over the middle of the ocean we look down; the sharks have created a circle, waiting for us to land; mouths watered; they delight themselves over the tasty meal that is about to enter their province.

Jump declares a readiness to move in our purpose for being.

To forget what happened in the past,
To bury old grudges,
To come to terms with mistakes,
To stop procrastinating,

 And take steps toward our future.

Jump happens suddenly.  Almost never prepared, we are taken by surprise. We do not have a plan A or a plan B ready for the worst case scenario.  That little innovator within us catches us on our blindside, and those sparks of yearning that we thought were smothered begin to ignite, once again.

Yet, jump isn't pushy. It doesn't make us jump,

Before we do our research,
Before we  seek out the voice of the Spirit that slumbers within us and ask for guidance.

There is no one in this world that can tell us what will happen if we jump into our reason for existence, our  purpose for our lives, but there are bunches of people who can tell us what will happen if we don't jump.

Look at them as they talk about what they would have done, what might have happened, if only......

There will be many travelers along our way whom we will pass that will be able to give us a testimony about,
 
Taking the safe road, 
Sticking to what you know, 
Doing what you were told, 
Waiting for the perfect time, 
Wanting to make sure, 
Holding on to  security, 
Waiting for tomorrow that never come.

Yes, it is scary. There are no doubts about that.

No, we do not have any guarantees.

Yes, we will make mistakes, I can assure you.

And yes, everyone will not understand.

To jump places us in the middle of the eye of the storm, as we watch as all those things that we thought we needed become irrelevant. We learn to adapt because we have a reason to live.

Jump throws us two steps backward so that we may land seven steps forward, years later, but we never know, where we will land, unless we bend our knees and jump.

"Jump,"  said the Prophet, "Jump."

The Prophet had just thrown his mantel over the young man as he returned from Mount Horeb.

The young man solemnly looked at the Prophet. "Please let me go and kiss my parents goodbye."

The Prophet looked at him with a knowing smile in his eyes.   "Go back. What have I done to you?" And the Prophet walked away.

The young man went back, and he slaughtered the yoke of oxen that he had used to  plow the field, and  he cooked the meat and gave it to the people.

The bridges were burned. 
No more plowing the field, 
No more living within his comfort zone,
With his little group of people, 
His family, 
His friends,
His neighbors.

His world had broadened in a matter of seconds. 

Look at him as he jumps up to follow his predecessor.
Can't you see him standing in mid air, learning, observing, gathering all the information that he needed for future use.
Several year later, this young man landed as the successor to Elijah the Prophet.

Elisha jumped.

Have you Jumped yet?

Ciao,
Pat Garcia