Waterfall Adventure Day
Jaco, Costa Rica November 2021
One day while in Jaco, a few of us decided to have spontaneous adventure day and go hike to a jungle waterfall. I don’t think any of us quite realized what we were getting ourselves into…Crossing ditches, squelching through mud, and trying to avoid bullet ant nests we slowly but surely made our way through the jungle. After what felt like hours I could see the waterfall and man, it was so worth the hike. Crystal blue water pouring down into a magical pool, it was simply perfect.
As people started to line up to jump off the waterfall, I shivered a little as doubts and fears began to whisper in my mind. “you can’t do it.” You’ll embarrass yourself and look stupid.” Lies from the past resurfacing. But you know what I did? Instead of giving ear to those voices, I began to climb. With every step, I become more scared and yet, that fear seemed to drive me forward. All the growth and healing I had been pressing into over the last 2 months became so evident. I realized I’d learned how to do things scared. I’d decided fear of failure and fear of man would no longer hold me back in life. And so I jumped. It was exhilarating and incredible and so worth it.
To me this is such a beautiful picture of life with the Lord. God doesn’t promise to give us all the answers or step-by-step instructions for our lives, but he does promise to be by our side every step of the way. Stepping into our calling looks like taking a leap of faith and jumping in, even when doubt and fear are still present.
Freedom is worth every painful moment of growth and healing.
Amen, Amelia! Thank you for telling this story. I love the part where you said instead of giving ear to those voices, you began to climb! That is such an encouragement to me in my every day regular life- when those voices of discouragement begin to cloud my mind, I need to keep on moving forward, fixing my eyes on Jesus, knowing he is with me every step. Thank you for this encouragement!
One of my favorite songs called I Am has the lyrics, “Sometimes trusting me [Christ] looks like a freefall // but either way I hope that you jump right in // let my peace you can’t understand take over your heart // take over your thoughts.” You really are going all in with Christ, my friend. I can see and feel the freedom in you!
So good. So I can tell you, following Jesus will have have times of stability of life, and times when you feel like your climbing a cliff just to jump off of it. There’ll always be seasons of working forward in faith while feeling trepidation.
This is an awesome bit of growth in the Lord you have experienced.
See you SOON!!
SO POWERFUL! Proud of you for stepping with courage and boldness.