Everybody, Always

skydiving is true in our lives. It’s usually not the initial failure that takes
any of us out; it’s the bounce. We’ve all hit the ground hard at work or in
a relationship or with a big ambition. Whether we had a big, public
failure or an even bigger private one, the initial failure won’t crush our
spirit or kill our faith; it’s the second hit that does. The second hit is what
follows when things go massively wrong or we fail big, and the people we
thought would rush to us create distance instead. They express
disapproval or treat us with polite indifference.
If we want to be like Jesus, here’s our simple and courageous job:
Catch people on the bounce. When they mess up, reach out to them with
love and acceptance the way Jesus did. When they hit hard, run to them
with your arms wide open to hug them even harder. God wants to be with
them when they mess up, and He wants us to participate.
I keep putting on my parachute and getting in the plane with Adam on
the weekends. Truth be known, I don’t like skydiving as much as he does,
but I like Adam a lot. Find what the people you love want to do and then
go be with them in it. If Adam wanted to make pizzas, I’d grow the
tomatoes. Be with each other. Don’t just gather information about people
who have failed big or are in need—go be with them. When you get there,
don’t just be in proximity—be present. Catch them. Don’t try to teach
them. There’s a big difference.
We don’t need a plan to do these things. We don’t need to wait for
just the right moment. We just need to show up, grab a parachute, and
when it’s time, jump out of our shoes after people the way Jesus jumped
out of heaven to be with us.
Sometimes we make loving people a lot more complicated than Jesus
did. We don’t need to anymore. It’s just up, down, and out.