You may have read or even watch as high wire artist Nik Wallenda walked without a harness on a 1,400 foot long high-wire across a 1,500 tall gorge near the Grand Canyon. In his memoirs he wrote, “I believe that God gives us the power to transform any story from darkness to light.” In a recent interview before he walk he said, “I visualize myself crossing the Canyon over and over again. I visualize myself making that first step, quarter of a way, half way, three quarters of a way and then finishing that walk. That’s really a lot o the mental prep.”
What got national attention was the fact that Wallenda prayed to Jesus the whole time as he walked along, completing the walk in 22 minutes and 54 seconds. “Thank you Lord. Thank you for calming that cable God” was one of the prayers he prayed as he reached the halfway point, having to deal with wind gusts of over 20 mph. What is fascinating for me is the fact that the name of Jesus and prayer got a lot of “free press” because of this man’s faith in God. There are some interesting analogies we can make from this event
Wallenda mentally prepared for his walk by visualizing the crossing of the Grand Canyon. Likewise, we need to visualize our walk with Jesus. Heb 12:1-2 reads in part, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Like the high wire artist we are not sure what awaits us as we walk with Jesus on the tight rope, that is life, in our culture today. One observer of our culture describes “a world that has gone on the decline as subversive policies and agendas have belittled the importance and impact of moral men in our society.” Men, we need to continually visualize Jesus with us on our daily journey in our day. With our eye on Jesus, he is able to turn any situation of darkness into light. Jesus is the light of the world
Sometimes we will feel we are halfway across a dangerous part of the journey. There are winds that will come our way, that could knock us off our path. We might not be able to change the conditions. But we can cry out for help. It is all to easy for us to react like Peter when he was on the water during the storm, coming to Jesus. We can get fearful with the conditions around us. But like Peter and Nik Wallenda, we can cry out to Jesus. Peter’s prayer was short and to the point – “Lord, save me!” Jesus will be there to rescue you. You will learn out on the tightrope spiritual truths that you would never have learned staying on the sidelines.
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