Walking the Tightrope

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

-- Matthew 8:10

If you were around in the 1970s, you probably remember Evel Knievel — the daredevil made famous by his attempts to jump a motorcycle over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho and the Grand Fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. (It’s perhaps no surprise that he broke 37 bones during his lifetime!) This past July, professional motorsports competitor and stuntman Travis Pastrana broke three of Knievel’s distance records by first jumping 143 feet over 52 automobiles, then 192 feet over 16 buses and finally 149 feet over the Caesars Palace Fountain. And it was all televised live for an audience of millions.

More than 150 years before Pastrana’s exploits, Charles Blondin was the

nation’s headline-grabbing risk-taker. In 1859, he made a name for himself by being the first person to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Even more impressive was that he accomplished this feat in different ways: on stilts, in a sack and even in the dark. One day, Blondin walked the tightrope over the falls blindfolded while pushing a wheelbarrow. The audience that had gathered along the riverbank roared their approval of the death-defying spectacle.

“Do you believe that I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?” he asked the excited crowd.

“Yes, yes!” they replied. “You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. You can do anything!”

“OK,” said the daredevil. “Get in the wheelbarrow.”

Blondin’s admirers claimed that they believed in him. But when he asked them to leave the comfort and safety of dry land and put their faith in action, no one came forward. Likewise, Christ-followers can fail to step out of their comfort zone for other kinds of faith-walks. When we face tough situations at home or at work, do we compromise -- or do we trust that God’s way is ultimately the right way -- regardless of the cost? For example, your boss might want you to exaggerate the company's sales figures so your department will impress the CEO. And your spouse might even tell you to fudge your family’s tax returns to claim a bigger refund. After all, who would ever know the difference?

When the spotlight is on us, we must expect opposition. And that’s when we need to ask God for the power to trust him and resist the temptation to compromise on what’s right.

Doing things God’s way can be costly — and particularly uncomfortable — when everyone is watching. But these situations can also be opportunities to demonstrate that our faith as Christ-followers is much more than mere words at a Sunday morning worship service. It’s this kind of faith-in-action that honors God. And when we seek to honor God, He will seek to honor us.