Skydiving into Life
Canvas: 20” x 24”
Cost: $1,200
Date: September 22nd, 2019
Artist Statement
As I walk out the door Sunday morning, I get an image of Jesus standing in the doorway beckoning me into a storm. That’s my life these days, like I am stepping out blindly into a cloud—zero visibility. That image keeps returning to my mind all morning. So I think, ‘Okay, Jesus is about to paint two skydivers leaping out of an airplane.’ Notice how one figure in the painting is relaxed and the other is holding on in fear. This was my experience when I took my kids with me to indoor skydiving on my 45th birthday. My kiddos did amazing, floating effortlessly around the cylinder! But, not me. I was fighting it. The ‘flight instructor’ explained, “You have to do the counterintuitive thing…when you feel like you are going to flip backwards—instead of reacting and pulling your knees in for balance—do the opposite—relax, go with it, let your back arch back and your belly hang out—let the wind push up around you.” (Much easier said than done!)
Will Hopkins, pastor at Hope Covenant church, delivered a sermon about our thirst for water that quenches and drew upon the encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” (John 4—Message Version)
In my early twenties, I thirsted for life in adventure. I started traveling to different places. The pursuit was exhilarating…climbing mountain peaks and fording ice-cold glacier-fed rivers in Alaska, swimming under waterfalls in South America, and bathing in hot onsens in Japan. But, sooner or later the aura of each adventure would wear off and I’d get thirsty again. Like sand through my fingers, something deep down inside me was never completely satisfied. By age 22, I realized I needed living water and did a major re-commitment of my life to Christ. After going to retreats, participating in church programs on and off for two decades, however, I still had major anxieties and a profound sense of shame—like dry cracked ground I prayed, “Jesus, help me! What am I doing wrong?!” I finally realized, I was still reacting, not relaxing. So, I gave up! Now I’m learning to jump out of the plane, to let the Water in the atmosphere position me and the Water in my spirit fulfill me.