I should have scouted out what was on the other side of the jump before I flew off of it. I was stuck up to my neck in snow. The air had been knocked out of me. I felt like I was suffocating. I needed help badly. My friend saw me next to the tree stuck in the snow, struggling. Thankfully my friend saw what had happened and he came over to me and dug me out of the snow. I was glad to be okay, but this event truly scared me. It woke me up to the fact that I need to look before I leap.

Before I was stuck in a snow ditch and struggling, I was having an amazing time snowboarding. My friends and I were tearing down the mountain, hitting jumps and dropping off of mini cliffs. We were racing and attempting to perfect our 180’s and 360’s. It was mindless fun until I went off a huge jump on the side of the run, without checking out the status of the landing. Big mistake.

I flew off the jump and in mid-air realized I was headed for a head-on collision with a tree. So in the air, I attempted to dodge the tree and landed right next to the tree in a ‘Tree-well.’ A tree-well is an area of loose snow around tree trunks. So I landed in this tree-well, had the air knocked out of me, and felt like I couldn’t breath. I never went off a jump blindly after this incident.

In life, as we go about our days, there are times where we blindly take action and realize, ‘I should not have done that.’ Walking by faith doesn’t mean we blindly take action in everything we do. It means if the Lord gives us a promise, we pray about it, scout it out, and wait for confirmation! We don’t want to rashly do anything without the Lord’s leading. We need the Lord’s wisdom before we make a move. Go down the hill and make sure the landing is good before going off the jump! We may not see every detail up front, but the Lord reveals enough to us, to KNOW it is safe to go that route!

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”  – Psalm 32:8