If Mike quits, he’s dead!
With most people, it doesn’t matter much if they quit their jobs. It might inconvenience somebody to fill in for the missing coworker and projects might be delayed. The quitter will miss some income, but it’s rarely a life or death matter.
But Mike? If Mike quits his job at the wrong time, he’s dead!
A few things are like that. Following Jesus is one of those. We’ll get to that in just a moment. But first, allow me to explain about Mike.
Mike is a tandem sky-diver. His job is
to jump out of airplanes with another person harnessed to him. The other person is just along for the thrill of the ride. Mike is the one who is actually parachuting. For him, skydiving is his job. What if he decided that he was bored with it and that he wanted to quit? What if he decided to quit, not on the ground or in the plane, but just after exiting the plane?
You see what I mean that if Mike quits in the middle of his job, he dies. Unless he does his job and pulls the ripcord on the way down, his chute won’t open and he won’t likely survive the impact.
Life is a bit like jumping from a plane. We hurtle through time enjoying thrills and sensations and incredible views. But, unless something intervenes, we are headed for certain death. Unless we pull the ripcord, none of us will survive. Our parachute is the grace of God extended to us in Jesus. Either we pull the cord, or we die.
But you don’t have to pull the ripcord and release the parachute. Some choose not to. I’ve read that most skydiving deaths are actually suicides in which the jumper either doesn’t pull the cord or removes his parachute on the way down. Hard to understand someone doing that.
It’s also hard to understand someone not deploying his spiritual parachute. “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation,” the Hebrew writer asks (Hebrews 2:3). It’s a rhetorical question. We won’t. Of Jesus, Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
Not only is the landing much softer with a chute, but the ride down is considerably more pleasant, too!
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