Half the year is almost gone. Summer is just around the corner, at least in Colorado we’re optimistic it is. During Mother’s Day week we had crazy weather, 9 inches of hail, lots of rain and even a couple of inches of snow. With each change in season I’m left reflecting on seasons gone by, as well as anticipating with great excitement the seasons yet to come. All sorts of unknown possibilities are in front of us. There will be sunny days, gloomy days, days with major storms and, eventually, the inevitable “sky-is-falling”, “end-of-world” type of days. If we let ourselves, we can become so overwhelmed by anxiety and fear of the potential dangers and “what if” cliffs, we miss the adventure.
One option is to curl up, gripped with anxiety, worry and dread, thinking about “someday”, or “next year, I’m gonna…” The other option is to do something now, starting small to make a difference in the lives of others or ourselves. Imagine if Christopher Columbus was content with building sandcastles along the seashore.
Now, some will go a little crazy when they decide to make a change. Take Larry Walters for example. The 33-year-old truck driver had been sitting around doing zilch, week in and week out, until boredom got the best of him. That was back in the summer of '82. He decided enough was enough. What he needed was an adventure. So on July 2nd of that year, he rigged 42 helium-filled weather balloons to a Sears lawn chair in San Pedro, California, then lifted off, armed with a pellet gun to shoot out a few balloons should he begin to fly too high.
Walters was shocked to reach 16,000 feet rather rapidly. He wasn't the only one surprised. A pilot reported seeing some guy in a lawn chair floating in the sky. It perplexed air traffic controllers. Finally, Walter's had had enough fun and started shooting a few balloons, which allowed him to land safely in Long Beach, some 45 minutes later. When asked why he did such a weird thing, Walters said: “It was something I had to do. I couldn't just sit there”.
Between doing nothing and trying something that ridiculous, there's a wide expanse worth probing. Think about the dozens of things God is going to teach us and the many ways we are going to see Him work in the coming seasons. But the warning is, you will have to change – and that won't come easy. Mark Twain was correct when he said, “the only one who likes change is a wet baby”.
Ross Haycock, CFP®, CRPC®, AIF®
Vice-President
Excerpts from Chuck Swindoll’s daily devotionals