Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane has as much appeal to me as jumping into a perfectly erupting volcano.

It ain’t gonna happen.

My adventurous wife, on the other hand, has had skydiving on her bucket list for as long as I have known her. Karla loves thrills. She loves roller coasters. She has ridden the Rip Cord Ride at Worlds of Fun that pulls dare devils up on a bungee cord and lets them go falling toward the earth. She has no fear.

On one of our trips, she excitedly came to me and informed me that she had signed us (not herself but US— her and me) up for a nine-story-high, through-the-jungle zip line excursion. When she saw the horror on my face, it dawned on her that I didn’t share her sense of adventure. “Oh, you probably won’t like this, will you? Too late! I already paid for it. No refunds.”

She is adventurous and cheap.

This year is her BIG Birthday year (I will refrain from saying what Big Birthday it is for fear that she is also adventurous and vengeful, but trust me it’s a BIG one). So I said, “This is your year. Your birthday is on a Saturday. You could skydive on your Big Birthday.”

It didn’t take much convincing. This Saturday, assuming the rain and wind stay away, my lovely bride will celebrate her Big Birthday by stepping out of an airplane while it is flying 3,000 feet in the air. Crazy!
Trying to assure me that she will be OK, Karla told me her skydiving verse was Romans 8:28: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.”

I told her maybe her skydiving verse should be Matthew 4:7: “Do not put the Lord thy God to the test.”
In any event, she is jumping while my feet will be firmly planted on planet earth.  But I won’t just be standing staring up to the sky. I assure you I will be fervently praying. I have fervently prayed before, but I anticipate that from the time Karla steps out of the plane to when the parachute finally opens, I will be a praying mad man. Seeing your bride prove the law of gravity while dropping at 9.8 meters per second squared (my high school physics lessons are paying off) tends to make one a prayer warrior.

Have you been transformed into a prayer warrior?

If you have loved ones who are not following Christ with their lives and have never been captivated by the love and grace of God— then you too should be a praying mad man (or woman). If we really believe that eternity hangs in the balance of our loved ones; if we really believe that they are on a collision course with their destiny; then maybe a little fervency is what we need in our prayer life. Maybe we should be praying for them like one’s wife is plunging toward the earth!

Don’t let them fall without a fight. Pray and don’t stop praying!

Geronimo! Your loved ones need your praying like their life depends on it— because it does.