Yes, my Oldest is up awfully high.
Yes, I did let him jump from there.
No , I was not totally okay with it.
But I have always believed that I need to teach my kids to use their own judgement on what they can and cannot do. I do have some limits in place, but I want them to learn to trust their abilities, and listen to their bodies in order to determine their limits.
I learned it from God.
He so graciously gives us the space to experiment with our own abilities and limits. He even allows us room to fail and get hurt. It's not because He is indifferent to our suffering or takes some kind of sadistic pleasure out of watching us stumble. It is precisely the opposite. He takes joy in seeing us succeed at things we have struggled with. He loves to watch His children master new skills, or even choose to honour the limits He has designed them with. He is pleased when we turn to each other in right community, choosing to lean on the strengths He gave others when we know we can't do it alone. He is a good God, who knows us so much deeper than we know ourselves. He knows what we can accomplish in His strength and timing, and He knows we won't necessarily believe Him until we have tested it ourselves.
God gave us free will, the ability to choose for ourselves if we would love and honour Him. In the garden of Eden, that free will was used to disobey and it severed mankind's direct connection to God. After that came the Law, which set in place some boundaries for us, so that we could stay close to God. Unfortunately God's people used their freedom to choose to make things harder for each other. They added to the rules to try to eliminate the risk of breaking them, only to make an even bigger mess for themselves. Then Jesus came. He not only restored our relationship with God and paid the penalty for all sin, he also gave us a blueprint for how to be a human in relationship with God after that restoration. He showed us how to use our free will to follow after him straight back into the loving arms of God the Father.
What he didn't do, was eliminate risk. He didn't come to give us all the answers to every question we have. Jesus did not come to boss us around and choose for us. He did not come to tell us the future so that we would never have any doubts about the decisions we make or how to best accomplish a task. He modeled a close, constant communication with the Father and Holy Spirit. He showed us how to take our questions to God and listen for His voice. He showed us how to step out beyond our comfort and trust God with the rest, even when we might get hurt in the process. Perhaps especially when we might get hurt.
If God has been asking you to trust Him with something that feels risky, may I encourage you to lean into it? Try the hard thing. Test your limits and take the leap in faith.
The risk will be worth it, because God has no limits.
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