Fall-away ground ... night 31/40

We're at the end of an annual wonder here at King's. I remember David Attenborough's 'Nature's Great Events' and I suppose there's something of a similarity ... only our version is so much greater because it's about great events beyond nature ...

I'm thinking of our Lenten Addresses. For three days in my 40 nights we invite a main speaker and a team of helpers into King's to encourage the boys, girls and staff to step out further in their thinking about God, and his Son Jesus Christ.

As has become typical, probably 80-90 have gathered these last three nights to step out in their thinking.  Then, tonight, a considered few chose to step out in new faith too.

For those who did, there's no doubt a feeling of stepping out precariously onto new ground that seems unfamiliar and unsure ... kind of fall-away ground that feels like it offers little early security.

There must be an element of equivalence to the new life a new child at the orphanage steps out onto. Is it safe ... will it last ... can I count on it for the security and hope I so desperately need to know is certain for my future?

But as over there, only infinitely more so, the ground soon catches up from behind the stepping out.  What was unsure becomes sure as God's gift of faith cements the gaps and firm ground advances into each new life ...

So fall-away ground becomes hold-you-up ground and each new future takes on a certainty and confidence that only this stepping out can bring.

It's a tremendous privilege to witness God at work in lives so powerfully and enduringly. I see it in so many of the children in India ... lives affected so profoundly and with such deep conviction ... and I see the same thing here.

My prayer in my tent this evening is for those who have stepped out in faith tonight ... that the fall-away ground feeling would last only a moment and that the Lord would cement under them a floor to last a lifetime.