Hello Friends, this month has been a challenge. I’ve succeeded in keeping my body occupied, but my mind has been in a whirl. How often are you faced with circumstances that don’t add up? Sometimes 1+1 won’t produce 2! Actually algebra would be a better illustration. (a + b = c) I know what ‘a’ is, and I’m pretty sure of ‘c’, but the presence of ‘b’ is not clear at all. The ‘b’ element is beginning to appear to consist of some extra unknown data. The equation is looking like ‘a + ( b + x)’ and it is not connecting to ‘c’.
In 1974 tight rope walker Philippe Petit strung a wire between the New York Twin Towers and actually walked back and forth eight times, 1,350 feet in the air with no safety net. He and a few friends had hidden out in the World Trade Center overnight and then illegally attached the wire in the morning. Forty years later a movie about it, Man on a Wire, won an Academy Award.
But there is a lesser-known story that is more interesting. In a TED Talk, Petit said that it’s less about the height of his walks and more about the things he’s connecting. He wants his walk to mean something to him or to those who are watching.
In 1987 he was invited by the mayor of Jerusalem to hang his wire across the Hinnom Valley, which surrounds the Old City, and open the Israel Festival. For this to mean something special, he chose his start and end points carefully.
He placed his wire between the Arab and the Jewish quarter because he knew the two groups were antagonistic. With nearly 80,000 friends and enemies watching, he began his high-wire walk. He was nervous. But so were the spectators. Given the volume of people and high tensions, a fight could break out at any time. It would have been deadly.
But then something happened.
In the middle of the journey, like a magician, he produced a dove and set it free. A sign of peace. Except, the dove didn’t fly. She flapped and took quick refuge on his head. The crowd roared in laughter. Petit reached up, still balancing on the wire and tried again but the dove did not fly. Her wing was broken. She made it to the end of his balancing pole and sat there. The crowd thought this was even funnier than the first attempt.
A third time, this time exhausted because he’d been balancing the entire time, he knocked her off and she landed on the wire behind him. The crowd cheered.
Worried that he no longer had the strength to get the rest of the way across, he took a small step forward. This is the part I like. Somebody somewhere started to clap in unison with his steps. Step, clap. Step, clap. Step, clap. Step, clap. Soon the entire valley was clapping together for the man on a wire and a bird that couldn’t fly. They put aside their differences and joined together to laugh and encourage.
Was that the meaning that Petit predicted and prepared for? No. It was better.
This month has been a challenge. I’ve been thoroughly blessed in seeing some unique answers to prayer; things I’ve been waiting on for quite a while. But more than usual, along with this open door, is the vivid, pouncing, misgiving intrusion of the enemy. My spirit says that every assignment by God is filled with meaning and blessing. I may not know the connections but I can take intermediate steps toward discovering and embracing the revelation He reveals incrementally, so I can invest more into His calling. In the midst of messy turmoil my spirit can take small steps. Thanks for clapping.
May you be blessed in realizing actual living proof that you have His resources. Be blessed in accepting good and perfect words and actions that stem from your Father.
