TotD: Michael

Maybe I should call these Thoughts of the Night.... Michael is possibly a changed name. Normally I don't tell other people's stories but this nearly made me cry for joy, so I have to.

There was a guy going on a missions trip to England (from the USA). In the US some mission groups do weird team building things (like businesses and schools do) in activity centres.
In the centre they do height exercises for three days. This group had a guy called Michael in it. He was a quiet and reserved person. The rest of the team said he was quite reserved and intelligent.

The evening of the first night the team had to do the 'trust exercise'. This is when you stand with your back to your teammates and fall and they catch you.
The reason it is done is to help people deal with trust and touch issues.
The whole team did it and Michael caught each of them without hesitation. The leader of the camp was afraid when it came to Michael's turn, he was afraid because Michael was so quiet that the leader worried he would not be heard when he said he was ready to fall and then would not be caught.

The leader, Mark, moved in front of Michael and told him it was his turn. He describes Michael as freezing up, sweating and the colour draining from his eyes.
Michael was told to prepare to fall by Mark and he obediently did so and then he allowed himself to fall. A second later his brain had obviously decided he should have already been caught and so Michael left out the most terrified, blood curdling scream.

After he was caught and calmed down Michael explained what happened that made him so terrified of falling and heights.

When he was an infant he was put in his cradle but he attempted to climb out and got to the top but his foot got caught in one of the bars and he hung upside down. He cried as hard and as loud as he could for as long as his little body would carry the noise and the tears. He screamed until his voice no longer worked, but he wasn't heard. He wasn't heard for two hours. He hung upside down for two hours until someone came to check on him, and since that, though it was unlikely he remembered the actual event, he had fears of falling and heights; life-or-death fears.

At this news, the other Christians praised God that Michael had, in some small way, faced and overcome his fear. Michael, who had seemed metal, finally showed a weakness and he was happier for it and the group supportive.

Day 2 of heights activities came about and Michael asked Mark about what they would be doing. Each team member had to climb up forty feet into the trees and traverse a forty-five minute obstacle course alone. Each person would be harnessed but would need to upclip themselves and connect to a new rope three times during the length of the course.
Michael was white as a ghost. Mark suggested he sit it out. He had done enough facing his fears for one mission trip. Michael was determined though. Mark harnessed him up himself and went through all he was doing in the safety procedures with Michael and answered Michael's dozen questions and showed him how to strap and unstrap himself safely.

Michael nodded that he was ready to go, he had asked for certain support including the leader of the team going to England doing the course behind him, not in his sight but there if he needed it, and two other people to walk underneath and cheer him on from the ground. Mark and his wife did this.
He would be alone, and he would feel alone but he would have support surrounding him.

Michael looked up the first ladder panic-stricken. Mark says he looked more scared than anyone he had seen in a few years of doing this course and he had seen people cry, say they couldn't do it, hug trees and not move, curse everyone they could, curse nature itself for having trees that tall and give up. Michael looked worse than all of them. Yet he climbed that ladder.

It took Michael twenty minutes to climb to the top, he took it at his pace; one step at a time. Once he reached the top the most amazing thing happened. Michael was terrified, he struggled and he cried out to God for deliverance from, what was, his own personal hell. He lost his balance and expressed emotions that must have embarrassed him but he never stopped. Not once, he never hugged a tree or froze, he kept moving.

As Michael went he wept freely. Tears streamed down his face, and more with every step. He cried and cried, as did Mark and his wife as they watched him, as he continually quoted Scripture reminding himself he was safe in the hands of the Lord and that he could trust Him and that God was his strength. He pushed on, ultimately taking three hours to complete the forty-five minute course, physically alone the entire time. He wept. He prayed. He kept his focus. He was scared to death. But he never stopped.

Mark says, "My wife and I, as well as all who were watching, choked up as we witnessed a man looking solely to God to face the darkest challenge in his life."

Michael faced his fear head on. He didn't just want to face this fear but to conquer it as well. He also moved out in God's strength, not waiting for God to make him braver, or send him help. He stepped out when it could not have possibly been more difficult, becoming completely dependent on God and allowing Him to make good on His promise that we can do all things through Him that gives us strength.

Michael finished the course and at the end you had to allow yourself to fall the forty feet to the ground, there was no ladder. He must have known at that point, being the intelligent one in the group, that this last obstacle would be the biggest falling sensation of his life yet he prepared himself to do it.

The facilitator at end of the course asked him if he wanted to say anything, knowing how momentous this all was, before he jumped off the edge. Michael wept and looked to the skies, beyond the treeline, into the heavens- then he whisper-screamed...

"for You!"

Then he jumped and landed safely. God kept His promise, and Michael became everyone's hero. A man that would face his fears and conquer them, not in his power but in God's.