"Oh yeah, that tether could tow a truck."

Those are words that I say almost every day at work to nervous kids that aren't sure whether to take the risks necessary to have adventures. On the zip-line and the ropes course, at least one kid in every group will ask, "Are you sure this can hold me?" While our answers have become somewhat routine, and strategies to talk them through it don't change too much, the fears are very real and very unfamiliar to each and every kid. Today, I encountered one student with a very real fear of the zip-line, and what I learned from her took me by surprise.

As I stood on top of the zip-line tower, a nervous middle-school girl asked me, "what if I let go of this tether as I go down?". Without even thinking, my response was, "well that's ok because even if you let go of that tether, that tether will still be holding you." Immediately I was humbled by the truth of that statement in a deeper sense, and how I fail to believe it for myself. If you've never read John 15:1-17, do it. It'll put all this in context.

While I rarely get nervous on our adventure elements, I can totally understand why this girl was scared. Even though she was told it was safe, and that nothing was going to keep that tether from holding her up on the zip-line, she had never experienced it for herself. She wasn't going to really know that it was safe til she arrived safely at the bottom, but to step off the tower, she had to trust that it was true. I know that I am a branch, held in to the vine. I know that God holds on to me even when I don't cling back to Him. But how often do I not trust it? How often to I question whether it is actually real? How often do I live my life as if it's up to me to hold on? How often do I live (or not live) believing that he won't come through for me, that He won't be good enough?

This girl's fear was unnecessary, just like mine, and I resonate with it so much. I so easily fall into this same fear every day. Father, help me truly trust that You are who You are, that I am safe in You, so that I can experience real life and adventure, and arrive safely at the end, with a full knowledge of Your love, grace, and truth.