Walking A Tightrope

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light on my path.”

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.”

John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?”

Tightrope of Faith

Sometimes I like to go back to the early stages of my faith, and feel nostalgic for the childlike wonder of God’s never ending love.

No matter how old you are when you come to learn of Our Lord and Heavenly Father you start out with a childlike awe, and you want to take what you have learned and share it with the universe.

After awhile that excitement and wonder of a Heavenly Father fades, and you are left feeling angry that life is so hard. You start to lose your faith.

This doesn’t mean you have given up on God, or that you are a bad person who has lost their way. It simply means that you have been through some hardships, trials and tribulations, and you have lost sight that Our Lord is still there lighting the path.

I often like to think of this time in our faith  journey as walking the tightrope of faith. You remember the days at the circus when you would see those guys and gals walking that tightrope hanging so high in the tent? You would hold your breath at they walked that rope, and hoped they didn’t fall to certain death.

I am sure many of you have watched movies on circuses that do this type of entertainment, even if you haven’t seen it with your own eyes in a big tent.

The concept of trusting your life to a rope strung out high above the ground is a leap of faith. That is what we do as Christians every single day. We tie our ropes, check if they are sturdy, and take a deep breath before walking that tightrope of faith.

Many of us stagger along the way, and we have a brief moment when we almost plummet to the ground. We take our eyes off of the light that is guiding our path, and we look down at the darkness beneath our feet. We start to panic and feel our balance sway. This is when we have to remember that our faith is stronger than the darkness. Our faith is that sturdy rope that offers us a safe passage to the other side.

Tightrope of Hope

Again when we were first aware of our childlike wonder of God’s love and grace we were filled with hope. Our hope came in the form of a loving father who would never leave us or forsake us. We were finally free from the bondage of fear. We could believe in the things that made life simple and peaceful.

However, just like our faith the hope can be shaken as well. It can take one bad day, bad diagnoses, or tragic event to take away all of our hope.

This is when we revisit our tightrope of hope. We like the circus acrobatics trust our lives to a sturdy rope, and hope that it doesn’t end in agony.

We test the strength of the rope with the tips of our toes, and take a deep breath before walking out.

We hope to make it to the other side, but there are moments in life when our hope is threatened.

Again, we must focus our eyes on the light. Our Lord has shined a light in the darkness, and the darkness can not overcome it.

In fact, in those moments when you feel you have lost all hope that is when the light shines brightest. God is trying to tell you that He is still here, He still loves you, and He will not let you fall.

Tightrope of Love

Ever feel like you are all alone on this planet? Like there is not a single person that could understand or love you? You are not alone in this thinking. We have all felt alone at some point in our lives. Even those who feel like they have things all together are alone at times.

It is in our human nature to feel alone and misunderstood from time to time. However, as Our Lord points out many times throughout His Word we are never truly alone. When we find Jesus we find our soulmate. Jesus is our one true soulmate. He will never hurt us, leave us, disappoint us, or forsake us.

When you get on that tightrope of Love with the Lord our God in your heart you will be on the best kind of journey.

That Love that we find when we first find Him is something that we long for throughout our time on this tightrope.

We have no way of knowing the exact time, place, or day that Our Lord is coming back for us, but we know he will come for us one day. He will make us all his Bride. We will have a place in Heaven.

This is the best kind of Love because it has no end, and it comes with no strings attached. The easiest thing we can do in this lifetime is Love God. God loves us no matter when we stagger on that tightrope, when we lose our faith, when we lose all hope, or when we feel scared that we may plummet.

So as you start to walk that tightrope in your life just know that you have to be brave, trust Our Lord, and believe that at the end is a great love.