Take a Leap of Faith
by Drenda Keesee
Gary and I had brought her to New Zealand with us for a conference, and when she saw a sign for bungee jumping, she begged to do it. I knew Gary wouldn’t want to go with her, so I reluctantly agreed.
Agreed to climb 141 feet up, and jump.
Off a bridge.
141 feet up. That’s how high the Kawarau Bridge in New Zealand is, in case you didn’t know that.
As we reached the top of the bridge, I had a sudden realization of…
It was daunting for sure.
My adrenaline began to kick in.
When Kirsten started getting cold feet, I was surprised to hear myself saying, “We’ve already come this far. Let’s do it.”
So, Kirsten jumped.
Then they wrapped my feet together, hooked me to the harness, and told me to climb out on the small diving-board-like platform.
Walking with your legs tied together is hard by the way, let alone trying to balance with your legs tied together while walking out on a board with no railing and looking over into a hundred-foot drop. Yeah.
The guy working the thing tried to pry my hands from the bridge railing as I inched my way out. Then he counted to three.
And I jumped.
Off the bridge toward the surging river with the rock canyons on either side.
And, you know what?
As I soared through the air for those next few seconds, and I took in the gorgeous view, I was so happy I had decided to take that leap and overcome that fear.
And for the rest of that day, Kirsten and I both felt like we were on top of the world. We felt fearless. We had overcome that fear.
That’s how God created all of us to live—in a state of fearlessness. That feeling you get where it feels like you can do anything and you’re brave, that’s what you were created to live in through God’s love.
Now, I’m not saying you need to go jumping off bridges with your feet tied together. But what is fear keeping you from doing?
Applying for that new job? Taking that course? Signing up for that big project at work? Visiting that church down the road? Riding a roller coaster with your son who loves them? Spending money on a vacation? Flying in an airplane to visit family across the country? Speaking in front of a group? Hiring another employee? Making a new friend?
That list can get pretty long pretty quickly.
The point is that fear is bondage. It holds you back.
It doesn’t matter how you’re living with it—whether you’re just tolerating it, you’re coping with it, or you’re reacting to it—if fear is present at all in your life, it’s keeping you from being free.
Fear wants to make you its slave.
But even when the emotion of fear comes on you, you don’t have to obey it. You can speak to it and take authority over it. You can choose faith in God over fear and the world’s system.
Break up with fear once and for all. And when it tries to come back, when it tries to talk to you, when it tries to find a place in your life, take authority over it. Run to God’s perfect love, because “perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)
~Drenda
ps…Are you looking for a good church? Be sure and listen on Saturday evening or catch the 3 services on Sunday for Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesee’s have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then the irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
