Tightrope

Is your life a tightrope?  Do you find you are having more and more difficulty balancing all of life’s responsibilities and expectations?  Does each step forward require a constant adjustment in your footing?  Perhaps the tightrope is just too high and not worth the risk.  Maybe you don’t feel physically fit to even attempt the first step.  In his article titled “Best Tightrope Walkers,” Davis Wilson writes, “No athlete demonstrates balance more expertly than a tight rope walker: a gravity-immune high-wire artist who can keep his footing while threatened with a significant, potentially very dangerous, drop” (www.theadrenalist.com).

At times, I view God’s plan for my life as if it were a tight rope laid out before me.  It is a thin cable stretched between two places: where I am and where I desire to be!  As I look forward across this tightrope, I am faced with several decisions.  First, do I even want to try!  Is it worth the risk to venture out on such a seemingly small, yet sturdy cord? Is the other side really worth it?  Second, as I make the choice to attempt the walk, what should I take with me?  I have seen others use a long pole to help them steady their balance.  Should I follow suit, or should I discover something else for myself?  Maybe I should gather more information about the process of tight rope walking; ask more questions of those who have gone before.  Then there is the weather to consider, hmm, perhaps waiting until the wind dies down would be the best course of action. 

I am currently reading a book suggested to me by Gail Johnsen, The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge.  I highly recommend it. In the chapter titled “Desert Communion” he writes, “Most of us think of spiritual progress as requiring us to do more, even as our heart cries out to us to lay our burdens down.  We renew our efforts at Bible study, Scripture memory, and Christian service, fearing that we will be discovered in our weakness and need” (p. 168-169).

As I contemplated this section of the book I pictured myself in the middle of a tight rope.  As crazy as it sounds, I didn’t have anything in my hands to balance myself, no Bible study manual or new devotional book.  My first instinct was to just jump off the rope, truly free, trusting  the Lord would catch me.  Surely, that was the purpose of this new revelation!  However, as I allowed the vision to unfold I realized that the point was not to jump, but to simply give up.  Suddenly, I was sitting down on the wire with my legs dangling over the side.  However, that wasn’t enough, I needed to actually lie down on the wire, arms tightly folded across my chest.  Then I realized, I was still in control.  Slowly, my arms unfolded and hung limp at my sides pointing towards the huge abyss below.  This whole time, I realized that my eyes were closed, a natural response to fear.  As I opened my eyes I saw God’s hands, one clamped firmly on top of me and the other gently cradling me underneath the tight rope.  I was firmly in His grip.  Suddenly, the tightrope didn’t matter because I was no longer needed to balance on top.  God was making sure I was securely fastened to my tightrope, His plan. There was no longer the threat of falling or failure.

The lesson for me is that His plan at times may feel like a tightrope, but the answer is not always more “doing,” there are seasons for that.  Sometimes the answer is just surrendering to His protection and releasing my own agenda in the midst of the plan, allowing Him to do the balancing.