New Level of Faith Part 1

                               New Level of Faith  Part 1

   It takes a lot of faith to parachute out of an airplane for the first time. A lot of people would like to do it and even think they have the courage but find it over whelming when faced with the actual challenge.
   Today it only takes about an hour or two of training to make a jump. When I started in 1969 it took days. After about a week of training, still I wasn't 100% sure I could leave the aircraft. But on jump run a girl student jumped before me and I said to myself, "If a girl can do it, so can I."

   On scale of one to ten, it felt like the fear factor was 100.
My whole life was about to hang on the correct functioning of a few yards of nylon cloth. However once the chute was open the fear drained away and the euphoria of the moment, that I had conquered my fear and was floating quietly down was awesome. 

   Back then surplus converted military parachutes were being used.
They were heavy, about 35 to 40 pounds and they were quite uncomfortable. Today all that gear weighs about 15 to 20 pounds and is very comfortable.

   Also we had the emergency chute  mounted on the front where we could see and touch it at all times. I made about a 100 jumps with the reserve chute on front and even deployed it in an emergency. So it gave me a great feeling of confidence until one day; new sport harness and containers became "Piggyback" rigs.

   The reserve chute now was placed on the top of the back pack. 
I remember the first time I jumped this new rig. 
   All of a sudden I realized as I exited the airplane, THERE WAS NO EMERGENCY CHUTE in front of me. It was frightening. My familiar security was gone. I realized it was taking a whole NEW LEVEL of faith to continue jumping. However the advantages became wonderfully evident and led to some marvelous experiences during my 2000+ jumps.

   I'm finding in my "Leap of Faith Into Eternity" trusting my body, mind and soul to my Creator, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3) that  there are NEW LEVELS of faith. All the "Working for" has been replaced with "Trusting In" Jesus as never before. 
   I hope you can grasp this, but God's Faith requires us to "Step out in Faith" in new ways. Peter had to step out of the boat and trust in Jesus as never before and walk on water.  

    Our faith is perfect and complete from God in our heart but we grow in KNOWLEDGE of it as Ephesians chapter one tells us.