Christian Living

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I’ve got several friends whose daughters are involved with cheerleading, both competitively and/or at their schools. Recently, I had lunch with a few of my gals and tried to follow along as they spoke “cheer”, a language consisting of words like tumbling pass, double based extension, triple toe back, cradle catch and spotting whip.

Cheerleading has really changed since my one-season stint as a football cheerleader in junior high. Back then, the cartwheel and side split were all you needed to master to have a shot at making the squad.

By today’s standards, those maneuvers are probably low impact warm-ups, if not totally obsolete. Seriously, cheerleading today should qualify as an Olympic sport, with every team member receiving a gold medal just for having the courage to tackle
something called a “basket toss”.

My friend Dodi tried to explain the term to me. I’m not sure if I got it right or not, but I think she said, “You toss the flyer into the air, who then doubles down into the stunt group while doing horizontal twists in the air.”

“Whatever you just said,” I told her, “is enough to put me in traction.”

The cheerleader who most amazes me is this one called the flyer, and appropriately so. This is the brave soul who is hoisted and tossed sky high without the benefit of wires, wings or written guarantees.

I imagine it takes tons of trust in your teammates to be a flyer. After all, she who goes up will come down, whether there’s a basket beneath her or not. This girl has got to be confident that her teammates are where they say they’ll be, prepared to do what they’re trained to do.

Now, wouldn’t it be great if we had that same kind of confidence in God?

It’s easy to be faith-filled when life finds us soaring along at a good pace. It’s when all the wing-flapping in the world doesn’t keep us airborne—when we’re doing horizontal twists towards a crash landing—that faith might become a struggle.

In Answers to Life’s Problems, Dr. Billy Graham says this is a common problem, one that most believers have experienced. He also reminds us that God doesn’t change just because our circumstances do, and writes “If you can trust Christ for your eternal salvation, can’t you also trust Him in the midst of life’s problems? Of course you can! ‘If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all of us—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?’”
(Romans 8: 31-32)

We must have faith to please God, as taught in Hebrews 11:6: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

If we know Christ as Lord, we’re already trusting God’s promise that salvation comes through His son. How, though, do we muster the unwavering faith that will sustain us when we take a free fall?

I think the answer is found in the scripture from Hebrews—earnestly seek Him. We must spend time with the Lord, getting to know Him for who He truly is. One of the great beauties of a relationship with Christ is that it’s personal. He wants us to know Him, but we have to offer our time so that He can teach us His ways, assure us of His promises, comfort and inspire us and increase our faith in His ability to do what is best for us.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2: 6-7)

Perfecting routines requires cheerleading squads to spend a lot of time together. That, no doubt, contributes significantly to why they feel confident in each other’s ability to keep that pyramid upright. And--we can be sure that flyer would never agree to be lifted and launched if she couldn’t trust the base beneath her.

Are we faith flyers in the sight of God, or are we too timid to even try to join the squad? God wants flyers, and in the competition against life’s trials—faith is the only way to win.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to dust off my pompoms and starting flying!


©Donna G. Morton, March 2007

Answers to Life’s Problems, Billy Graham, pages 136-137

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