Nik Wallenda, age 34, walked 1,500 feet across the massive Grand Canyon gorge on a 2-inch thick cable in 22 minutes as millions around the world watched on the Discovery channel on television and computer screens. The nationally-televised stunt was his most daring ever, even better than his walk across Niagara Falls.
“It was unbelievable,” he told reporters later. “It was everything I wanted it to be. It was extremely emotional. I got to the other end and started crying.”
Wallenda repeatedly thanked God throughout the walk that was often interrupted by strong wind gusts, and the audience heard him as he often called upon the name of Jesus Christ. He knew that things could go badly. His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, 73, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico in 1978 and died. Several other family members, including a cousin and an uncle, have also perished while performing stunts.
Another Wallenda, Tino is a good friend of mine and has been involved in the Bill Glass Prison Ministry for a couple of decades. He strings a high wire out in the prison yard and sits on a chair and stands on his head 65 feet in the air as he talks about Jesus. Not long ago he brought his granddaughter and grandson to the prisons with him and they all performed with him. God bless this family that risks their very lives and give God the credit every step of the way.
Wallenda will tell prisoners: “Keep your eyes on an unmoving point a fixed point. Focus on that point and keep that as your goal. Then he will say that life is similar to a tightrope walk. The focus of our life’s walk should be Jesus. Wallenda tells his audiences that if we keep focused on Jesus, our eyes fixed on him, then we will keep our balance, we will not slip and fall, and we will reach our goal.
Tino Wallenda grandson of Karl started tightrope walking when he was just 7 years old. Wallenda has known tragedy too and understand that life is fragile, but he also knows that God is strong. His focus on the high wire, (and off), have been tested over and again with terrific results.
If you are having trouble keeping a balanced life, take a page out of Tino, Nik, and the entire Wallenda family’s book and keep your eye focused on Jesus. Some try to balance their lives through program after program, books, support groups, websites, exercise, hobbies and on and on, but programs don’t give us a balanced life. Our lives should be centered on Jesus Christ and our Bible should be our foundation and that is where the balance is derived.
Wallenda states, “When I think of balance I think of Jesus’ words found in:
Matthew 6:25
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. . . And which one of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your span of life?”