It's almost as if, when you made the choice to sin, you were just far enough away from the edge of a cliff to be in danger of falling off and unaware of it's existence simultaneously.
With this in mind, the decision to take a small step towards the cliff seems almost safe. Nearly risk free. In some cases, maybe almost worth it. Such is the nature of temptation.
So you take the step, and unknowingly fall off a cliff you might have remembered from your past. One you thought you had already journeyed miles away from. Had no idea was still there.
How is it, that in our Christian lives, even as we continually move forward, it can seem like a cliff is always just one step behind? Is it always the same cliff? Does it slowly become less dangerous?
Whence comes the progress we so painstakingly make daily by the grace of God and the renewing of our minds?
Can we ever truly escape our cliffs this side of heaven? And what is their purpose in our lives?
I believe the purpose lies in free fall. We understand why we need a safety net (or saviour) a lot more when we are in free fall. This is why the Lord lets us fall, and why the cliff can seem to be always just one step behind us.
When we're in free fall, feeling like we haven't made any progress at all, what we don't realise is that the cliff has become less steep.
For the sake of illustration, instead of walking away from the cliff as we walk hand in hand with God through life, we are actually filling it with good solid earth – making the fall less and less dangerous; less and less steep.
But free-fall still must exist as a possibility. Why? Because there is nothing quite like it to remind us of our need for the safety net, or our Saviour.
Tina Hakimi is an Arizona-raised, Sydney-based writer pursuing her doctorate at UNSW and learning the art of thanksgiving in all its forms.
Tina Hakimi previous articles may be viewed at
www.pressserviceinternational.org/tina-hakimi.html