Something electric shocked my heart alive the day I first saw her.

I felt like I was standing under Niagara Falls. Or being shot into a galaxy of new emotion.

When Brittney swooped into my life, my heart leaped into the great unknown of love — and I jumped in after it.

I knew that falling might mean pain. Maybe even a sort of emotional death if things didn’t work out. But I also knew I couldn’t just stand at the precipice while my heart plunged into the mysterious chasm below. Or so I thought.

I didn’t know I had another option. I didn’t know I could fly instead of fall.

Flying vs. Falling

When you fall, you’re out of control. There’s no slowing down. Nothing to hold on to. And no way to choose where you land — or crash. Gravity pulls you down, and your dominant thought is Will I survive this?

When you fly, you have stability. There’s gliding and swooping. You’re carefree and precise. Flying is graceful, swift, and efficient. And when gravity pulls you down, your prevalent thought is, Where should I land?

Flying still requires that you take a risk of the heart. But it’s a risk entirely different from that of falling.

Bottom line: You don’t have to suffer unbearable confusion or break into a million pieces as you search for that special guy or girl to spend your life with. You can have peace and stay whole. And I’m not just talking about hiding in your Bible or abstaining from sex. Not at all.

Flying doesn’t come with any prerequisites. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken every relationship bone in your body or if you’re emotionally whole. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started a relationship, have been in one for months, or are simply looking forward to one in the future.

All that matters is your willingness to rethink what true love looks like and start living it.

 

Caleb Breakey’s latest book, Dating Like Airplanes: Why Just Fall in Love When You Can Fly? has a January 2014 release date and can be ordered here.