Lessons From Line 6

A couple of weeks ago, a deaf man came to ride our zip line. He did not bring an interpreter and none of us knew sign language. He also couldn't read lips. It was hard to communicate with him about all of the safety rules and what he could expect while out on the course. I wrote out the main rules on a piece of paper before we left so he could at least read them and get some sort of idea about what to expect. The rest of the tour was spent using motions to try and explain what would be happening next.

Everything was going pretty smooth, but when we got to line 6, I noticed the wind had picked up. Line 6 is 1100 feet long and goes across Broken Bow Lake. When the wind is blowing it slows you down and makes getting across a little more challenging. Normally, we tell people to cannonball, like you would into a swimming pool, and it helps you build up speed.  This helps you get across the line with less problems.

The problem was, we were at the beginning of line 6. There was no paper to write down that I needed him to cannonball as he went across line 6. So using my best acting skills, I squatted down into a cannonball to try to show him how to pull his knees up as he went across. I'm sure this would have looked very comical had anyone else been up there with us and honestly, the man may have thought I had lost my mind. Also, I decided to trade him my trolley for his because my trolley was a faster trolley. So there we sat on line 6, me trading out his equipment and then squatting into a cannonball, trying to communicate what he needed to do to get across. The thing is, the man trusted me. He trusted that I knew what I was doing and apparently my acting skills were better than I thought because he cannonballed all the way across.

As we finished the tour, God began to really speak to me. This man did not know anything about us or our operation. He really had no way to communicate with us, but yet he still trusted the process. It felt like God said, do you have that much trust in me as this man had in you?

Some things that really hit me were:

1) This man trusted that I knew what I was doing. He was with me about two hours on a course he had never been on before, yet he trusted me. We need to trust God like this and believe that God knows what He is doing in our lives. You see I had this man's best interest at heart. I wanted this to be a safe and fun experience for him and I think I was able to show him through my actions that I really did have his best interest at heart.
If we really look deep, we can see that God has our best interest at heart. Sometimes things don't always happen the way we think they should but we can trust God that He does have our best interest at heart.

2) The man's equipment was fine, but for the last line I wanted to make sure he got across the line without getting stuck. The man trusted me to make these changes even though he didn't understand what was going on. He just trusted that I was doing something that was good for him.
Do we trust God when he makes some changes in us? Maybe he takes something away or gives us something different, that is not quite like what we were expecting or wanting. Do we trust God enough to know He knows what we need and what is best for us?

3) That man probably had some fear and anxiety about what was going on, but he stuck through the process anyway and he enjoyed every bit of the process. Do we trust God when life begins to get fearful and just let Him take over and cast our cares and anxiety on Him or do we live in fear? Just some thoughts from line 6.