A Paragliding Parable
(first published in Reality magazine)
I sat on a hillside in Wanaka and watched at close range a paraglider getting ready for take off. It took quite a while to get all the equipment assembled and then a few short dummy runs to test the strength of the wind. When the moment for take off came my own heart was pounding as he ran forward - and kept on running when the hillside disappeared. I watched his feet pumping in midair and then the tricky manoeuvre as he settled himself into the harness seat. The whole process looked terrifying to me. Would I ever dare to run straight off the side of a hill with only a parachute on my back and the wind to support me? To be honest, I doubt it.
But then he glided past me at eye level. I could hear the hum of the wind in the sail. I watched him circle and glide noiselessly and effortlessly over the pastureland below. I could almost feel the exhilaration and freedom and for a brief, mad moment I wanted to try it. For the present though, I settled for the safer option of vicariously enjoying his journey! I watched until he landed safely far below and began packing up his gear. Then I set off for the long downhill walk.
On the way down the mountain I met him climbing back up complete with the harness and sail. We stopped on the narrow track for a chat and I noticed that his helmet said "Tandem Paragliding". Yes, he said, he was an instructor and guide in a company that took people tandem gliding. Why didn't I come along and try it one day when the season started? Coward that I am, I was relieved that it wasn't "the season" now - and that I would be many miles away from Wanaka by the time it was!
That incident took place months ago and I hadn't thought about it since - until this morning. This morning I read the familiar passage (Mark 8:34-38) where Jesus tells us that if we try to save our life we will lose it, but if we lose it for his sake we will find it. "Take up your cross and follow me" Jesus said. That is the way to lose your life - and find it. My mind wandered to another saying of Jesus "Take my yoke upon you" (Matthew 11:29). "Take up your cross... Take my yoke..." That's when the picture of the paraglider came to mind. Perhaps there is a link between taking up the cross and taking Jesus' yoke. The paraglider helped me to see it.
The harness and the parasail are heavy and cumbersome on the ground. Only when the person wearing them gives up control of his/her life by running off the hillside into the wind do they become the source of life and of effortless movement.
The parasail as a yoke is something to put on which makes impossible things possible - and even easy. (I wouldn't recommend running off a hillside without one!) But running off the side of a hill into the wind is a kind of dying. Taking up the parasail and running forward is an act of giving up control and trusting oneself to a completely new source of life support.
If I ever did have the courage to try paragliding I would definitely want to start with a tandem ride. Being yoked together with an expert would reduce, if not eliminate, the terror. I would experience the exhilaration of flying which I can never know while I sit on the hillside. Yoked to Jesus perhaps I can dare to risk more than ever before and trust the wind of the Spirit to support me. And the cross which seems to be an instrument of death will turn out to be the harness and the sail to carry me into new dimensions of life.
I hope I won't offend anyone by paraphrasing the words of Jesus thus:
"Come, you who are burdened and heavy laden, put on my paragliding harness and let's go for a tandem ride."
"If you want to be my disciples, take up your parasail and run off the hillside into the wind. If you try and stay safely on the ground you'll lose out, but if you risk everything, even life itself, by trusting me and the power of the Spirit - you'll experience a whole new dimension of life!"
