"I can do all things through Him who strenthens me." Phil 4:13

I'm thinking about the Superman ride at Six Flags, the zip line at Camp Dudly when I was in seventh grade, the high ropes course I did in my youth group in high school, and the one time I went bridge jumping with Chris and Lynnae.  If any of you have ever done any of these things or something similar (sky diving, bungee jumping, cliff jumping, etc.), then you might relate to what I'm about to describe.

You're SO excited.  You can hardly wait, standing in line, looking up (or looking down), watching the others as they experience the thrill of it.  This is going to be so fun!  The closer you get, the faster your heart races.  You just keep playing over and over again in your head how it'll go down.  You picture yourself confidently putting on the gear, or pulling the safety bar over your head, throwing your hands up in the air and screaming as loud as you can, "Woooo hoooo!!!!"  The moment can't come too soon.  Until it comes.  Now you're sitting in that seat, standing over the ledge of the bridge, balancing on that rope 20 feet in the air and you're thinking, 'Am I ready for this?  Can I really do this?  Can I back out?  WHAT am I doing?'  You realize there's no turning back.  The next few moments are shear panic as you realize what you just got yourself into an what you're about to do.  Those few seconds feel like eternity and you're thinking, 'Lets just get this over with!!' Then suddenly you're shooting up into the air at incredible speeds screaming your lungs out (not the woooo hooooo that you expected but the 'i'm going to have a heart attack' kind), you've stepped off the ledge and you're headed toward the water, or zipping toward that tree.  Your heart is pumping and you realize, 'I'm alive!  I did it!  Wooooo hooooo!'  Perhaps you forgot that feeling of terror and you're already back in line, or maybe you decided, 'I will never do that again.'  Either way, you did it, and you will never forget it.

Okinawa.  Moving overseas.  Living overseas.  Over the past three months I've been standing in line, waiting for this incredible time in my life.  Excited, anticipating the adventure it will be.  Now I'm approaching that ledge, that seat.  I'm putting on that harness, climbing the ladder.  And I'm beginning to feel a little terrified.  We have a month before we leave (which really is no time at all), but I have this sense of anxiety and I just want to get it over with!  The longer I sit here and wait and think about what it'll be like, the more things that come to mind of why I should be nervous and why this is so crazy.  I know that when we're there and settled I'll look back at this time and think, 'That wasn't so bad.  We did it!'  But right now is not that time.  Right now I'm standing on the edge, looking down, thinking, 'Can I really do this?'