High Dive Life Lesson

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB

You might be wondering what on earth does a high dive life lesson have to do with Proverbs 3:5-6. Keep reading any you'll find out.

Growing up in Merrick, Long Island, New York (I wish Long Island would become it's own state since Rhode Island is a state and is smaller-but I digress), I had a friend named Dennis. We still keep in touch. In the summer we would go to Jones Beach on the south shore. Jones Beach was not only popular with Long Islanders, but folks from New York City and New Jersey would make the trek to it. It could be very croweded.

When we would go to Jones Beach we would go to the ocean and ride the waves, body surfing. Sometimes we would also go to the swimming pools there as well.

One summer when we were about twelve years of age we went to the pool where we spent most of the day. One end the pool was shallow and it would become deeper the further you would go into the pool. The deep end had diving boards. Two diving boards were your average diving boards. In between the two diving boards was the high dive. It was about twelve feet above the water.

At ground level, watching kids of all ages diving or jumping off the high dive was pretty exciting to watch. I don't know why, it just was. You know how twelve year olds could be. Especially boys. Dennis relished the high dive. He wouldn't dive, but he'd run the length of the board and then do a cannon ball jump into the water. He would try to get me to do it because he saw how I liked watching him and others dive or jump.

For the longest time I wouldn't go off the high dive. I was a very good swimmer, even at twelve. However, I wasn't much of a diver from a diving board. From the edge of a pool to swim, yes, but not from a diving board.

One day Dennis finally convinced me to go off the high dive. He was a good friend. If he told me I wouldn't get hurt, and that it's fun, I believed him because Dennis never steered me wrong.

The line for the high dive was typically long. Dennis and I took our place in the line. Dennis was behind me. When we finally came to the high dive ladder, I climbed up enthusiastically. However, when I got to the top, suddenly twelve feet above the water felt like I was on top of the Empire State Building in New York City. Twelve feet may as well have been the 1,472 feet that the Empire State Building stood at.

I slowly approached the edge of the board and looked down. I stood there for what seemed to be hours, but were just a few minutes. Dennis had already climbed up to the top of the ladder waiting his turn. He looked at me with an expression of, “Paul, you gotta jump!” The line of kids waiting to go off the high dive was getting longer.

“Hey Dennis, will you let me off, I don't want to jump.”

“No, Paul. You gotta jump. I'm not letting you off. Trust me, you'll be okay.”

I looked down at the water again. Although if Dennis said I'd be okay, I knew I'd be okay, but looking at the water below was telling me I would not be okay.

“C'mon Dennis, let me down!” I yelled.

Dennis, shaking his head said, “Nope. You gotta jump.”

By now the kids in line were starting to get annoyed. I went to the very edge of the board. I looked down at the water. I closed my eyes tightly and jumped. Hurling my body through the air felt very weird to me. No control. I hit the water. I sank to the bottom of the pool in which the deep end was twelve feet deep. I touched bottom and pushed myself up. When I reached the top, I swam to the pool ladder and got out of the water. Dennis came up after me. When he came up the pool ladder he asked me how did I like it.

“It was a weird feeling falling to the water,” I said. “But let's go do it again!” Every time we went to the pool at Jones Beach, I would jump off the high dive over and over again.

I haven't thought of that minor adventure for many, many years. Just a few days ago that memory popped back into my head. Almost as soon as it popped into my head I thought of Proverbs 3:5-6. The memory of the high dive incident at that moment became a life lesson for me.

On 12/08/2025 it will be fifty years in which I have given my life over to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And just like when Dennis, a good friend whom I trusted, encouraged me to go off the high dive, telling me I wouldn't get hurt and I'd be okay, when it got to the point of taking that jump, that leap of faith so to speak, I was having a hard time believing I was not going to get hurt and that I would be okay.

At times it has been that way with my relationship with Jesus. When there are times He speaks to my heart about doing things or not doing things, I do them with utmost confidence. Even when dire circumstances would happen when I knew He told me what to do and my feelings would get in the way to keep going forward, to trust in Him would rise up and the confidence would return.

But then there are those times that despite the experiences I've had seeing Him always come through, many times in ways when there would seem to be no way, I would falter. I would get annoyed at my self for not trusting Him. Then of course, I would feel miserable because I knew that regardless of what situations or circumstances might arise, Jesus has always been faithful to see me through to the other side.

Deborah and I are seventy years of age now. Yet, we know, as crazy as it may seem, that God has called us to Bixby, Oklahoma, a town south of the city of Tulsa, to plant a church. Although our dear friend Apostle Scott Lovett has offered to help us, we get overwhelmed by the thought, because having been in leadership we know what it takes to start a church. Like the saying goes, “It ain't easy.”

Joshua, the protege of Moses was in a similar situation. Moses passed away and now Joshua was to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. Despite that Joshua saw some outstanding things of how God moved for the people of Israel, he obviously felt overwhelmed about this new chapter in his life. It becomes clear because of what God spoke to Joshua.

“Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that it is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:2-9 NASB

From verses 6-9, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous three times. I believe that should show us that Joshua may have felt a tad overwhelmed by what the Lord had called him to. Joshua didn't have Proverbs 3:5-6 to read and encourage himself with. But he did have God Himself encouraging him. Needless to say, if God was with Joshua, He is with all of us who were purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's funny how the Holy Spirit can turn a memory of jumping off a high dive at twelve years into a life lesson to trust in Him with all my heart and not to lean to my understanding, and to acknowledge Him in all my ways believing He will make my paths straight. I hope all who read this will have renewed trust and confidence in Him, not matter what you're facing. Amen. Love and God bless, Pastor Paul.