Tightrope

 We marvel at the balance of a tightrope walker.

But we have such delicate balances in our own lives. What do you hold in your heart right now? What mix of joy and sorrow, fear and faith, dark and hope? These are balances far more living, far more eternal, far more tenuous than any tightrope.

 

At any moment we are tempted to sway in one degree or another: to let fear dominate, or to lean in the other way in a false happiness, or the distractions of pleasure.

 

It is maturity to walk the tightrope, with a beautiful ease and balance, to hold both grief and gratitude at the same time. It is not just something that happens because we experience both grief and gratitude. We must practice walking. We must be discipled in this. We must see it modeled—first of all by the living Lord Jesus as he walks with us. Also by his community he has placed around us.

 

Who do you know who balances the tension of emotions well? How do they do it? What questions would you like to ask them?

 

Do be discipled by my Lord: I kneel at the foot of the cross. The weight of such tension falls. Such, such deep grief at the weight of the cost, the weight of my sin. I struck my Lord. Oh, I struck my Lord! And the weight of the broken, lost world. But such deep, deep gratitude of joy, where the heart can feel what

words cannot say. The hope of a ruling Lord of goodness, far above all powers. The discipleship of Jesus, at the foot of the cross, and the heart grows to walk with fine beauty this tightrope. To carry both, in right measure. 

 

In your own experience, when have you met Jesus in such a mix of emotions?

Reflect on a time when a mix of emotions welled up in you from an experience of Jesus or the gospels. What was that like? What did you learn?

How do you see Jesus helping Peter and the disciples walk this with ease, and return from either a false triumph or fear?