Recently, I heard the amazing story of Charles Blondin, a famous French tightrope walker, which illustrates how we can be challenged.
Blondin’s greatest fame came on September 14, 1860, when he became the first person to cross a tightrope stretched 11,000 feet (over a quarter of a mile) across the mighty Niagara Falls. People from both Canada and America came from miles away to see this great feat.
He walked across, 160 feet above the falls, several times… each time with a different daring feat – once in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, in the dark, and blindfolded. One time he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet in the middle of the rope!
He also went across pushing a wheelbarrow and then a one point, he asked for the participation of a volunteer. Upon reaching the other side, the crowd’s applause was louder than the roar of the falls!
The crowd enthusiastically yelled, “Yes! You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. We believe!” How many volunteers do you think stepped forward? There were none, but the reason is the most interesting: They only observed and believed.
As the story is told only his manager was willing to take the step beyond belief and have sufficient faith in Blondin, to be carried across the tightrope on Blondin’s back.
Standing on the ground, it was easy to believe based on what the crowd was witnessing. However, when asked to risk their own life, it required more than simply believing. There is obviously an entirely different level that takes us beyond belief.
In June 1990, Petra release an album featuring a song written by Bob Hartman entitled: “Beyond Belief” which was based on Heb. 6:1a, Phil. 1:6 Rom. 1:17. Here is the chorus:
There’s a higher place to go, beyond belief, beyond belief
Where we reach the next plateau, beyond belief, beyond belief
And from faith to faith we grow
Towards the center of the flow
Where He beckons us to go, beyond belief, beyond belief
The song did not actually name on that place that is beyond belief, but I would call it trust. What Bondin was asking of the crowd is very similar to what “believers” are called to do, not just believe but trust. Trust is much difficult and beyond belief.
In my search to highlight the difference between belief and trust I read a blog that quoted Peter Enns and he provides a great illustration. Jesus tells a famous story about why those who follow him need not worry about anything. Don’t fret about how much you have, what you wear, or what you will eat. Don’t worry. Trust. (Matthew 6:25-34).
Jesus illustrates the point in what at first blush seems rather off topic–at best marginally helpful. He tells us to consider the grass of the field and the birds of the sky. Look at them, Jesus says. They’re doing just fine and they don’t worry for a second.
Of course they don’t worry, Jesus, because they are–if I’m not mistaken–grass and birds. Grass doesn’t have a brain and birds are skittish little things that fly into windows. These things aren’t really relevant, Jesus, because, you see, by definition, Jesus, these things are incapable of worry.
And when you put it that way, you can see the profound point–and challenge–of what Jesus is saying: worry should be as impossible for us as it is for grass and birds. His followers–if they get it–should be as incapable of worry as insentient grass and bird-brained birds.
“Believing in God” doesn’t get you to that place Jesus is describing here. Belief leaves room for worry. Trust explodes it.
The question I would leave you with is this: Are you one who can step further than the crowd of believers, beyond belief, and move to trust, where you are incapable of worry?