A Call to Fast
Introduction
IF YOU’VE ever watched the high jumpers in the Olympics, you will realize that there are two kinds. The regular high jumpers jump about seven feet. They run and throw their backs over the bar. But there is another kind of high jumper. They are called pole-vaulters. They jump about eighteen feet. They back up. They look down the runway. But they have that pole in their hand. They start running down the track, stick the pole in a hole in the ground, put all of their weight on that pole, and use the pole to lift them to a level that they could not lift themselves on their own.
Some of us have mountains. There is a crossbar and we have tried to high-jump it in the flesh. We have seen that mountain and we have backed up. We have said, “Mountain, you are not going to keep me down any longer.” We grit our teeth with the power of positive thinking, New Year’s resolutions, and resolves not to repeat our mistakes. We take off and we jump two feet when there is an eighteen-foot bar.
Some of us have been jumping that same two feet for fifty years and the bar is still up there. In fact, it keeps going higher every year. Maybe what you need is a pole vault. You need something that you can lean on when you get to your problem so that you can go higher than you could ever lift yourself. Maybe you need a pole that will help you jump over the mountain. The pole vault for the bars in your life are fasting and prayer.293