If African impalas ever figure out how to enter the Olympics, they are going to smash all the jumping world records.
These animals can leap over 10 feet high and 33 feet long. To put that in perspective, the current record for the long jump is 29 feet 4.25 inches. All it will take is one loophole and the world will be introduced to the Michael Phelps of medium-sized antelopes.
With such great soaring ability, you would think it would be difficult for zoos to house these animal-pogo sticks. Must take some very tall walls to keep an impala contained, right?
Wrong.
It actually only takes a three-foot high wall. See, an impala will not jump when it cannot see the landing place. Since it can’t see over the three-foot high wall, it doesn’t jump. It remains in place, even though it could clear a wall three times the size.
Any of my basketball coaches will tell you that I can’t jump very high, but I know how these impalas feel. Not being able to see over the wall is scary. There could frightening things over there like lions or girls.
I used to think that all we needed to do to be willing to take a leap was believe in ourselves. Believe you can accomplish something and anything is possible, right?
I am starting to learn that it isn’t enough to simply have belief in our abilities. I bet impalas believe they are capable of jumping over a short wall. We need to have belief in our ability to land (or crash and get up) in the darkness. If we don’t have this, we will remain on one side of the wall, paralyzed by the unknown.
H/T to Mark Batterson on the interesting information on the impalas.
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