Tip of My Iceberg

I’m an experience person more than a thing person. Things meet needs and can wear out or break down. Experiences are memories that can last and be relived in my mind.

When my daughter and her best friend drove down to Albuquerque and got to see a Balloon Festival, that was an experience I wish I could have shared with them. It’s the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival, begun in 1972, and is the biggest balloon festival in the world with over 500 balloons participating,

I’ve wanted to see this festival since I found out about it twenty years ago from a friend. Her descriptions of the balloons and the opportunities she had to ride in them piqued my interest. I’ve had the chance to go sky diving; this felt like it would be the logical–and fantastical–follow-up.

There’s something about being high off the ground with only a basket between you and free falling that stimulates the imagination to what flight could be. When Leonardo Da Vinci created his ornithopter, a flying design showing how man could fly by flapping wings, he began a process that piqued the curiosity of many–can man fly? The idea of soaring through the air with just wings, like a bird, is a dream many have had.

Others have had the idea of climbing higher than they should have, shooting for a height that wasn’t wise. In Greek mythology, Icarus, the son of Daedalus, the inventor, ignored his father’s warning. His father made him wings to fly but alerted him of the problem of flying too close to the sun. Icarus ignored his father’s words and died as his wings melted from the sun’s heat.

When David ruled in Israel, his son Absalom became angry with his half-brother Amnon for taking advantage of his sister in the most heinous way. Absalom looked for a way to deal with Amnon. After two years, he managed to have his men kill his half-brother for what he’d done. Absalom fled the kingdom; David longed to be reunited with Absalom because he’d finally found out what his other son had done.

David was encouraged to bring his son back to the kingdom, but he struggled with seeing him in person. Their relationship was strained, so even when they saw one another, it wasn’t the same.

Absalom became so angry with his father that he sought to steal the hearts of Israel’s people, which he did by stepping into the position of judge for the people, capturing their hearts so they would claim loyalty to him. When he saw his chance, he stirred up a rebellion against the king, causing David to flee for his life.

His son rose to a position he never should have claimed. He took what was never his to become what he was never meant to be.

Eventually what happened was David’s men, those who remained faithful to him, killed Absalom, despite the urging of the king to be gentle with his son.

Too often when we seek to rise in status in the eyes of others, it’s not what’s best for us. Seeking recognition and fame aren’t bad values if we’re presented with the opportunity to do so with dignity and character. It’s when we go past the wisdom shared with us and become foolish in our actions that we become thoughtless in what we do.

We all want to become the best us we can be, to rise in our jobs, families, communities to heights of significance. There’s a right way to do it–not like Absalom, who turned his back on his father and ultimately his people.

Those hot-air balloons are reflections of what rising gracefully, slowly, and with purpose can look like. Not like a balloon whose air is released suddenly and it blows around all over the place.

God alone has the wisdom to understand our longings and dreams. He alone can keep us from falling. Even if we fall, however, He picks us up, dusts us off, and gives us another chance.

No hot air involved.