Would You Jump?

Have you ever been afraid? So afraid it paralyzes you?

If you were hanging thousands of feet in the air,

would you jump

or

would fear hold you captive?

At the camp I attended last week there was a zip-line. It was high. I'm talking really, really high. Some of the kids asked if I would go on the zip-line with them. Not to be outdone by 7th graders, I said, "Sure!" Inside I was thinking, "What in the world am I doing?"
We waited our turn patiently talking and laughing in the line, when the strangest thing happen.
This guy from the camp said, "Okay, next in line, head to the top."
My stomach dropped. My hands started to shake. I started sweating more than normal and if you know me that's A LOT!
"What was I thinking?" I asked myself.
The girls in front of me were laughing and talking as we climbed higher, and higher, and higher.
I stopped 1/2 way up to give myself a pep-talk. "You can do this, Steph. You can do, this. Think of the little engine. He thought he could." I found myself responding, "That's fiction. Who made that up anyway?"
By the time I arrived to the top, I was the last one to be strapped in which meant I would be jumping off next to the side. There was 1 problem. There were no rails around the deck. The side had nothing to hold on to. If I got too near the edge, I was toast. I would just fall off.
I froze. I was paralyzed. I sat down. There was no way I was going near the edge. I begged to switch places with one of the students but they were already strapped on.
The worker was so kind. I guess she had to be, I was holding on to her for dear life.
She loosened my rope so that I could crawl to the edge of the deck. She instructed me to dangle my feet off the deck. On the count of 3 I was suppose to jump.
"How could I jump?" I thought to myself.
Somehow I had to muster up the courage to just throw myself off a deck thousands of feet in the air and pray that a rope like the one I used to jump in elementary school would save my life.
This wasn't making sense.
The other girls were giggling as tears filled my eyes.
I couldn't let them down.
I had to be brave.
We counted to 3...1...2...3....
I paused briefly and then threw myself into mid-air!
The most amazing thing happened. The jump rope held and before I knew it I was flying threw the air with a cool breeze blowing across my face. It was amazing.
As we concluded the ride I thought, "What if I had missed this moment?"

Never let fear keep you from missing a moment. When you are afraid, face it. Walk right into it.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."

What is the 1 thing you THINK you cannot do?

As Nike says, "Just do it!"