What Jumping Out of a Plane Taught Me about the Spiritual Life
Monk Mindset for Living Well
Monk Mindset 1
Show Up and Receive the Light: Meditation and Prayer
Reflection on the Monk Mindset & Quote
At 19 years old, I got a group of friends together over my first summer back from college to go skydiving over the Georgia plains. I remember the skydiving guides telling us before we went up:
“Now, when you get up there and you’re standing on the edge of the plane holding on, everything in your mind and body will NOT let you jump. You actually wont be able to jump because your body wants to preserve itself. But when we say go, you HAVE to jump. You will have to mentally override your instinct and force yourself to jump. You will have to trust that it will be ok. That is why you came here.”
This is basically the spiritual life.
St. Therese, the 19th century Carmelite nun and spiritual powerhouse, once wrote in a letter that “confidence” is the surest path to Love – by which she means to God and living out of His love.
What does this “confidence” actually mean?
During our day there are so many things that press in and give us anxiety, fear, uncertainty about the future. We make many excuses not to do little things well, not to be present or loving to others, not to follow the demands of faith or love.
But it is in having confidence that we can do all these things not on our own but because we are then carried by Love, by God, just as I was carried by my parachute after jumping.
Meister Eckhart, the 14th German mystic, described this as “sinking into God” – to fall onto him in our soul, psyche and even sometimes physically. To do this, we actually have to spiritually jump out of the plane and trust that our parachute is there and it will work and we will be safe.
To close the story. Sure enough, when I was holding on the edge of the tiny plane 2 miles above the earth I was not actually able to let go and jump. But I closed my eyes and literally willed to jump. I let go and jumped as far as I could from the plane into the open air.
For what seemed like eternity I fell to the ground. Interestingly, it didn't even feel like I was falling – I felt like I was in a giant wind tunnel above the earth until I pulled the parachute and the ground crept closer and closer.
Put It Into Practice This Week
What’s one area of your life that you have trouble trusting that things will be ok, that you will be supported, or that God will help you?
Close your eyes and imagine standing on the edge of a tiny plane suspended above the earth. The plane is whatever it is you have trouble trusting about.
Now, imagine yourself forcing yourself to jump off from the plane – trusting as you jump. Not into an abyss but into the thermals of God’s support and strength to support you.
Feel the air and rush of flying – knowing that your parachute is there and that you are safe in His support.
Follow Us