Walking a tightrope of terror...and facing down fear.

So...I took a trip to Stone Mountain Park outside of Atlanta this past weekend...with us was a good friend's 11 year-old daughter. Wanting always to see the 'kid' have a good time, I enthusiastically suggested that we take the "Sky Hike."

The 3-story ropes course wasn't too bad at first...safely harnessed of course, we were offered 2 options at each stage of the hike...a challenging option, and a less challenging one. I took the road less challenged...

Until, we came upon a section with no less challenging option...you see it pictured here. While the angled boards might look less challenging, they are not...mostly due to the fact that they move back and forth, and the swinging makes balance difficult. The other option...? A single tight-rope.

Safety harness or no, I was terrified. I tried to step onto the tightrope, but couldn't go through with it...pulling back onto the platform, I was frozen. There was no stairway down from the platform...and people coming up from behind... My friend and her daughter had passed over the tightrope safely, and waved me on with encouraging words. Well...I think they were encouraging words, but I couldn't really hear because of the wild buzzing in my head! I waved a couple people on through -- pass me I said, I can't do it.

A very nice couple, just shy of middle-age, stopped long enough to give me a pep talk, and to encourage me forward....then they crossed ahead of me.

What moved me forward? The absence of a stairwell to safety, that's what. There was no exit option! What was I to do? Bring the entire thing to a halt for all the people behind me? Hope for one of the young workers to rescue me...? None were looking my way...

And so, I stepped toward my terror, and put one foot in front of the other. And I faced down my fear. Granted, I had what could only be described as a deathgrip on the safety harness that held me against the forces of gravity, and when I reached the opposite side platform, I slipped and fell to herald my arrival...but I made it across that danged tightrope, and I'm right proud of it!

It's interesting that fear could completely paralzye me that way, even with a safety harness tied securely in place. I was probably safer walking that tightrope in a harness than I am in my day-to-day life, but fear can sometimes trick you. There's an old acronym for fear that goes like this:

False

Evidence

Appearing

Real

What do you fear today? Is is possible that the risk is less than you think it is...or even with great risk, it's worth it to face down the fear? Down here on the ground, I'd like to think of God as our ultimate safety harness. Even if we do fall, we'll never be left defenseless against the forces of gravity.

There are some things that I fear right now...various situations, good and bad, that give me cause to pause...but I'm going to keep stepping out on the rope...and if you don't mind, I'll probably continue to maintain my deathgrip on the safety harness!