I must simply look up and hold on and wait as the God of my ancestors – my Saviour – walks across the tightrope of my life and carries me to salvation on the other side!
I recently read the story of the French Acrobat, Carles Blondin, who – in the nineteenth century – crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope three hundred times during his lifetime.
And he crossed this distance in many ways. He crossed firstly by walking across from one end to the other – a process that took him about twenty-three minutes per crossing. He crossed it backwards. He crossed it in somersaults and cartwheels. He crossed it at night balancing headlights on either side of his body to see. He crossed it pushing a wheelbarrow. He crossed it carrying an oven and utensils on his back (stopping in the middle to fry and omelette and and eat it, drinking some champagne). He crossed it carrying a chair upon which he tried to sit (although on that crossing the chair fell and Blondin almost did as well). And Blondin even crossed Nigra Falls on a tightrope carrying his manager on his back.
On that last crossing, Blondin famously told his manager that he had to “be Blondin”. He was to sway with Blondin and move with Blondin and make his own body as though it were one with Blondin. Blondin told this manager that if the manager tried to straighten himself or balance himself in any way, both men would plunge to their deaths…
Blondin died a short while after his last walk from complications caused by diabetes.
And I have been thinking about Blondin today. Blondin believed that he was born to walk the tightrope. When he was four years old, he first walked a tightrope between two chairs and since that day he had trained and prepared for all of the crazy things that he did during his career as an acrobat.
And I have been reflecting on the life and daring of this man because it occurs to me that such a feat would not have been possible without the STRONG and arguably CRAZY faith that this man had in himself to be able to succeed.
And it occurs to me today that though it seems crazy to imagine a man walking across a tightrope in the late 1800s in such a dangerous manner, his faith in his own ability to succeed was the key that allowed him to be successful in that endeavour. And my own efforts to be awarded salvation are no less terrifying than that tightrope walk across Niagara Falls. You see – just as Blondin needed faith to make that walk – visualising what he was going to accomplish although it had never been accomplished before – so too must I have faith – not in my own ability (for I am capable of noting on my own) – but in the ability of God to save me…
And when I think about that, it seems that I must follow the advice of Blondin to his manager. I must make myself a passenger of God Himself. I must not try to straighten myself or balance myself – or I shall surely die eternally. I must simply look up and hold on and wait as the God of my ancestors – my Saviour – walks across the tightrope of my life and carries me to salvation on the other side!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments