Springs and Bats
In the opening of his book, Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell pulls out a trampoline to illustrate the fluid dynamic of doctrine and right-living. (Personally, I would have pulled out a bat to make the same point, but maybe a trampoline is a better sport-related metaphor.) The springs of the trampoline are our beliefs and the jumping represents the way we live. “The springs,” Bell says, “aren’t Jesus. The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our jumping” (p. 22).
My alternative, bat solution (which is a more traditional way of looking at this) might go like this: “The bat isn’t Jesus. The bat is the statement we make about our faith that help give words [to the person we hit] about the depth we are experiencing as we bat them.” Those who pick up the bat are prone to use it. But maybe Bell is right; perhaps we need a new metaphor for this fraternity of faith and works.
What’s the use of learning what to believe if it doesn’t inform the way we live? We skirt around the trampoline, testing each spring to make sure it will hold us. Occasionally we put a hand on the mat as an act of faith, but we don’t get on. With a sigh of relief we finish checking every spring. Everything seems to be in order. But just before we’re about to put those springs to use, some of us begin to wonder if the springs are really as strong as you remember them. It’s prudent to go around and check them again…and again…and again…
If you find that you’re still holding on to a bat, maybe it’s time to let go. If you find you’re nervously circling your trampoline, maybe it’s time to get on. Those spring-beliefs are useless if you never test them with your whole weight. And that bat you’ve been swinging like the “professionals” isn’t very fun, is it? You’ve clenched your faith so tight you’re choking it. And no one admires the God of a bat-wielding Christian.
Trampolines are where it’s at. No one ever condemned a person on a trampoline. It’s too much fun. You can’t jump without those springs, and without the jumping the springs are useless. So get on and jump. Exercise those beliefs and you’ll find that you’ll jump higher than ever before. You might even like it. And if you like it, maybe someone else will too…
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