A famous tight-rope walker stood before a huge crowd; "Do you believe that I can walk across Niagara Falls on this tightrope?" he asked.
"Yes!" they shouted.
So he did.
"Now, do you believe that I can cross pushing a wheelbarrow?" he asked.
"Yes!" they screamed.
So he did. The crowd went wild.
"Now," he said, "for my most dangerous trick. How many of you believe I can push someone across in my wheelbarrow?"
"Yes, we believe you can do it!" the crowd shouted.
"Okay," said he. "Who will be my first volunteer?"
There was a lighter side to the dramatic walk over Niagara Falls by Nik Wallenda on June 15. "Welcome to Canada." "May I see your passport please?" And Nik, pretending that he forgot it, adding, "I have nothing to declare."
The tension of moments before is quickly washed away in the roar of the four million cubic feet per minute falls. "Don't give up on your dreams," Wallenda says. "Set your mind to it and never give up." Nik hopes his example "will inspire people around the world to never give up."
Nik's journey over the years is very like our life's journey. We plan, we dream, we struggle, we attempt. Like his father sitting in the communications booth in constant touch, our heavenly Father is as near to us, encouraging us.
Our heavenly Father is watching us, prompting us, encouraging us to make a safe jounrey. "I'm even more thrilled that you made it to the other side," Nik's dad says. "I love you dad," Nik rejoins.
"How can you stay so calm?" Nik replies, "through a lot of prayer" and the presence of his grandfather who lost his life years earlier in a fall from the wire.
"Thank you God, thank you Jesus," Nik says as he places one foot carefully before the other. Each step in our lives is a gift from the creator. Like Nik's journey, our lives have uphill and downhill stretches; foggy valleys to be covered when our fingers are cold and numb from just hanging on to the balance pole.
The challenges of Nik's walk, like the challenges of our lives, may be "more than I expected, [but] not greater than I prepared for," as Nik put it. We need to use the graces available to us in our prayer and church lives.
Then there is the beautiful finish! Nik goes on one knee to the crowd, then sprints the final steps to safety, the end of his journey.
Some day we will finish that home stretch of our life's journey. We will feel drained. But oh, the greeting of family members and loved ones who have gone on ahead and now meet us with open arms!
Let us check ourselves today. Do we still have the passport we received at Baptism? Are we training for more challenges than we expect? Is our life's dream still clearly before us?
And most important! Is the communications line open to our Father in the control booth? "Before you were born I knew you." "I will never forget you." "Behold, I am with you always." "I have loved you with an everlasting love."
