Fall and Rise

Philippe Petit between World Trade Center Buildings
August 7, 1974

I've never tried it, but tightrope walking seems quite difficult. A narrow path makes it easy to fall off. All it would take it one wrong step. To stay on, you must concentrate. You must balance, and you must keep your eyes on the destination in front of you. The second you start to doubt that you can make it, you will become unsteady and perhaps you will even fall.

Following Christ isn't much different. The gate that leads to heaven is narrow. If you are going to devote your life to God, you'll be expected to follow His commandments. You can't take your eyes off heaven for too long or you'll lose balance in your life. The second you let something else come before God, you allow yourself to falter. One wrong step, one wrong decision, and you're falling.

But falling is okay.

Humans have been falling and failing and MESSING UP since the Garden of Eden. That's why God installed a safety net beneath our tightropes.

In our quest to enter heaven, WE WILL FALL DOWN. We will at times lose sight of God and of what is truly important in life (and after life). As we fall through the air, we may not see God. We may not know up from down or right from wrong.

And then we will land. Hitting this safety net means realizing that we have messed up AND turning to God to fix it. Sometimes we hit it because there is nowhere else to go; we've hit rock bottom. Sometimes, another person will lead us to it before we fall any further. And sometimes, we ourselves will simply hear God guiding us to Him as we fall.

As we hit that net, God surrounds us each individually in His loving embrace. Once we acknowledge Him, He looks into our hearts, sees our sin, and WASHES IT AWAY. Gone. Forever. All it takes is our plea for forgiveness and our repentance. Then God forgets all about the ways we have messed up. He no longer frets about how badly you have fallen off that tightrope; now His desire is to take your hand and lead you back to it to try again.

We walk on that narrow path. We fall. We rise. Over and over again. For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again (Proverbs 24:16).

It's inevitable. We all fall down. I have. I will. You have and you will. But don't be afraid of this inevitability; just because you will fall down doesn't mean you will stay down. "The hands that hold the world are holding your heart" (Safe, Phil Wickham). These hands are going to aid you as you once again endeavor to follow the difficult path of Christ.

Even the saints had to fall every once in a while on their earthly tightropes until they made it to heaven. What helped them finally make it their was that balancing beam. In this post's picture, you see Petit holding that horizontal bar to help Him balance. Well for a Christian, this bar is the Holy Spirit, Church, prayer, friends, mentors, etc. Anything that helps you maintain a balanced Christ-centered life will make that tightrope trip easier.

God will lead you above the evil and hate and pain of earth if you can manage to stay on that tightrope. You will experience a loving connection with God. At times you will fall. But you are never forced to stay on the ground.

God will pick you up and take you by the hand. He will be by your side as you walk the tightrope, as you fall, and as you rise. Every second of every day, He's there. Until you jump off the tightrope and enter His gates, He's there.



Shout out to Caroline for letting me come to her house to write this when my wifi broke. Jesus loves you, Caroline.