Volume 30, No. 49                                              
December 11, 2005

Leaps of Faith

   George Nissen got the jump on his competition. He invented the trampoline.

   As a teenager in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during the 1920s, George loved the circus acrobats.  He noticed that even when they fell from the high wire, they could do amazing twists and turns as they bounced on the safety net below.  At local vaudeville shows, the lad found more inspiration in the springboard gag:  a man pushed into the orchestra pit would miraculously bounce back onto the stage.  But what clinched his idea for a “jumping table” was a schoolbook describing how the Inuit sometimes staked tightened walrus skins to the ground and bounced on them, just for fun.

   For ten years, Nissen worked on his concept while becoming a world-class tumbler, winning the National Championship three years in a row.  His first trampoline — from the Spanish trampolin, for springboard — was made of bed rails, strips of innertube, rope and canvas.  When he took it to the YMCA, the kids loved it.

   But when Nissen started production in 1938, few bought his trampolines, thinking they were just for elite performers.  So he hit the road, giving demonstrations at schools, fairs, playgrounds and sporting events.  That helped, but sales took a real jump when Nissen trained a kangaroo to bounce on the trampoline while holding hands with him.  Newspapers everywhere carried the picture.  Then, when World War Two broke out, sales soared again when Nissen convinced the military trampolines could help fighter pilot trainees improve conditioning and get used to being upside down.

   By the late 1950s, “trampoline centres”  were charging forty cents for a half hour of fun.  But Nissen complained that greedy profiteers didn’t care about safety and, after some highly publicized accidents, the centres closed.  Trampolines got a bad name.

   Besides, just bouncing up and down was boring.  So Nissen and his partner Kurt Baechler combined gymnastics with trampolining, formed the International Trampoline Federation, and held the first World Championships.  In 2000, trampolining became an Olympic sport, finally completing the dream Nissen first had as a 19-year-old.

   Vision, hard work, imagination and perseverance. Those are the same qualities each of us must have to share Christ effectively.  More than anything, we must be able to see the wondrous possibilities afforded by a faith that empowers us to land safely when we fall, bounce back from adversity, and leap high above our circumstances, even when time, money and energy are stretched tightly.

   Not only must we believe in such a concept, we must build into our lives a practical way to make it work.  Our spiritual trampoline is the loving, confident trust we find in Jesus as He repeatedly sees us safely through life’s ups and downs.  It takes time, training and self-discipline to learn how to use such a faith, but we must be able to demonstrate it personally, if we want people to want it themselves.

   One of our biggest challenges will be to convince others faith isn’t just for a narrow few — the churchy, the intellectually challenged or the spiritual champions.  We have to show it’s relevant to everyone, and the best way is to share our own experience — the highs and the lows that helped us encounter Christ, either out of gratitude or need.

   That won’t happen if we hide in our churches.  We must go where the people are, giving personal demonstrations of faith in a way that’s fresh and imaginative.  Fads, gimmicks and photo ops are no substitute for substance, but let’s find ways to communicate God’s Good News with humour and creativity.  It’ll also help when we show others faith enhances our emotional conditioning and helps us keep our perspective when our lives are thrown upside down.

   Though we’ll have to repair the damage done by those who give faith a bad name by their greed or neglect, we can infuse faith with a whole new meaning if we get past the boring and banal to combine spirituality with strength, flexibility and the encouragement that comes of being in a loving, like-minded community of believers.  After all, we’re part of an international family and the world will recognize our talents when we use them to inspire others.  Jump to it.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the followers of Christ nondenominational congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To get on a weekly mailing list for free Cross Current articles, send an email to sgamble@bfree.on.ca