This strange warning about the high jump is in common use in English. Google led me to an explanation. “It is slang for being in big trouble. The phrase refers to the hanging of a convicted criminal, the gallows being the ‘high jump’”. This got me thinking about the high jump in athletics. In this event one always fails in the end.
At school my daughter excelled at high jump and I used to watch her at the school sports days. There can be few experiences more nerve-wracking for a father than watching your child swing her arms in preparation for that spring over the bar. She runs obliquely and launches herself up and over backwards. Sometimes her back, sometimes her heel will knock that bar and she’ll have to try again, with three tries at every height. No-one wins at high jump.
Even when you have beaten the competition, the bar is raised higher until you fail at last. Then you are called forward to receive the winner’s medal to the applause of the crowd, and that of your proud father.
Last week I visited a dear friend who has leukaemia but the chemotherapy she has received has failed to halt the disease. Her faith in our loving Father is strong and she waits peacefully for what is to come.
There must come a time in every life when, even if the spirit is still willing, the flesh cannot clear the last bar.
In a life lived for Christ this is not a failure, but the step to the winner’s podium to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” Matt. 25:21
