All-In

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:6 (NLT)

Have you ever done a trust fall? If not, here’s a brief description. You stand on an elevated surface, a table, a chair, a retaining wall, etc., A group of your friends, coworkers, or whoever is helping, line up in parallel lines behind you. With your back turned to them, you allow yourself to fall backwards off the elevated surface to be caught by those waiting in lines behind you. The exercise is meant to help create a strong bond of trust in teams (hence the name). I’ve participated in hundreds of these trust falls, as catcher, faller, and supervisor.

Here are some things I’ve learned along the way. Everyone is scared the first time they do it. Regardless of how calm they look, their brain is screaming at them “Are you nuts?! You don’t fall backward and trust that these people will catch you!” Technique is important. Fallers are instructed to lock their back and legs straight and to keep their arms attached to their sides. Failing to do so will cause possible injury. Flailing arms smack your catchers in the face. Broken noses ensue. Bending at the waist creates a phenomenon which my friend has titled “Bullet Butt,” which causes you to fall through the arms of those trying to catch you and down to the ground. And, finally, you have to fully commit. Going half-hearted results in people getting hurt.

The reality is that the reason people flail and bend is that they allow the panic to overcome them. They commit to going, but as they begin to tip backward, they change their mind and try to get back upright. However, gravity and momentum won’t allow that happen. They didn’t go all-in with the plan. They didn’t stick with it when things suddenly got scary.

Yes, there is a huge spiritual lesson for us here. When it comes to following Jesus, we must go all-in. We can’t be half-hearted. We have to fully commit to His path, His way for our lives. As our verse today says, “Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” In other words, we need to seek God’s desires for our finances, careers, relationships, marriage, children, volunteering, and the thousand other areas of our existence. We must go all-in. Why? Much like the trust fall, when we fail to fully commit, people get hurt, including ourselves. When we try to wrestle control back from God’s plan, we replace it with our plan. If we do this with even one aspect, things go horribly wrong. All of the momentum we had with God comes to a crashing halt and others get hurt in the process.