President Reagan told a joke about a man holding on for life to keep from falling three hundred feet. He seeks help from God and He tells the man to let go. The joke is far too long for me to repeat it here so I’ll save you the time and go straight to the punch line. The man looks around a number of times and calls out, “Is there anyone else up there who can help me?”
I can understand the man’s fear. Really I can. I wrote a post explaining that the only way I would jump out of an an airplane is if the plane is falling faster than me, parachute or not. I have a very strong fear of heights. Indeed I have thought about this joke many times and initially thought I would immediately follow God’s instruction. However, as I reconsidered a number of times, I don’t know. Three hundred feet is a long fall.
I wish I could honestly say I would release my hold on that temporary solution, but I don’t think any of us really knows what we would do until we are tested under real conditions.
I don’t know if the person who wrote the joke was aware but it is a good way to think about God’s plan of salvation. There are those who tenaciously hold onto that branch, the hope of a false religion. They believe in the repeated rituals, and the murmurs of memorized ‘prayers’ taught to them by men who don’t really know God. We are taught that if we just hold onto those traditions, we will go to heaven and live forever.
I am one of those who don’t put my faith in rituals but in Jesus Christ the son of God. I let go of that false hope of religion.
My advice to the youth: let go of the branch. Do as God tells us. Place your faith in Jesus rather than the traditions began by men. It will take courage, but the end of men’s traditions is death. If you think it over, it’s only logical. Jesus has the power to save. Tradition, man’s traditions won’t.
By the way, it’s also good advice for anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their only salvation, young or old. It’s just better if you do it while young. As we grow older, we also get more set in our ways. It becomes more difficult to let go of the old ways and harder to place your faith in Jesus. As we age, pride becomes more of a factor. I was thirteen. I remember. Even then pride stood in my way. I said no many times before I said yes. And each time I said no it was more difficult to say yes.
Let go now, before you wait so long you can’t.
bfrhodes99 