My parasailing adventure

This week my mind went back to a memory of 25 years ago. I was on vacation with my parents in Panama City Beach, Florida. While there I contemplated having a parasailing experience. Watching others being harnessed and go up, up, and away both excited me and made me nervous, too. My excitement won out. I paid the fee and swam out to the waiting boat. Onboard I was placed in a harness and the parachute tossed into the wind where it was caught up quickly. In minutes I was in the air. The attendants were letting out the cord that attached the parachute to the boat. Higher and higher I went. I watched the water at first and the boat, but as I relaxed, I looked at the beach and over the rooftops of the hotels lined up along the way. Everything began to look smaller and smaller, but the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the sound — there wasn’t any. I don’t believe I have ever experienced absolute silence like I did then. The beauty of the silence, the scope of all I could see at once, brought peace that washed over me like the gentle ocean waves gliding onto the shore below.

What brought on the silence to the noisy world below? What brought on the scope of seeing so much at one time? It was the height to which I had risen. As I have recalled this memory I have also reasoned that the same thing happens in our spiritual worlds. We can become so bogged down when all we listen to is the complaining, the slander, the lies, the rudeness, the evil of this world. We can feel we are drowning in sorrow and despair when all we look at is the darkness of this world. Hearing becomes used to the din of nothing but noise, and seeing grows so accustomed to the dark that we forget to turn towards the Light.

Just as parasailing higher turns a deaf ear to the world’s noise and broadens the scope of sight, so looking up to the Lord trains our ears to hear Him above anything else, and sharpens our sight to see Him working out His plans for our lives “to bring good and not bad, to give a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, NLT) I also love the verse in James 4:8 that tells us to “draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” When we purposefully come close to Him, we both hear and see Him in better clarity. We take on an understanding of His ways and of His will for our lives. Trust grows in what He tells us to do. Joy escalates. Peace comes.

May you rise higher today, leaving noisy, unsightly troubles below, as you rise in nearness to the One who sees all, hears all, loves perfectly, and guides you without mistake.