Falling and Standing: August 7th devo

Falling and Standing

August 7th Devotional

Psalm 118:13

      On this day in 1974, Philippe Petit tight roped the span of the Twin Towers.  This was not his first extreme stunt.  Prior to this, he walked across the spires of Notre Dame and then walked across the two pylons at Sydney Harbor but nothing would compare with his high-flying stunt in New York.  His plan to tight rope from the twin towers came to him six years earlier while sitting at a dentist's office.  He was reading an article about the twin towers and drew a picture of himself walking from building to building.  He exclaimed that the feat would be impossible but he lived for the impossible.  Philippe would covertly plan his walk.  He visited the World Trade Towers over 200 times.  Each time he would make special notes about what time workers would arrive and leave, different construction companies, the color hard hats they used, and their id badges, he even posed as a journalist asking questions while his friends took pictures of the rooftops.  The day prior Petit and his crew arrived at the Twin Towers dressed as construction workers.  They climbed to the rooftops bearing hundreds of pounds of equipment.  They had to wait until nightfall to install the two hundred pound steel cable.  After years of dreaming and planning, Philippe would step onto the tightrope at 7 A.M.  He was over 1300 feet in the air, roughly ¼ of a mile to the ground.  The only thing below him was pavement and the promise of death if he messed up the routine.  He stepped onto the rope with ZERO safety apparatus.  There was no harness to catch him, there was no safety net.  The only thing he had was a large balancing pole.  The streets below were busy with bystanders.  Each of them could see a man walking from building to building. It simply looked like a man floating in the air.  The crowd would gasp and cheer.  The crowd eventually included police who were pleading for Petit to return to the ground.  Philippe was on the tightrope for 45 minutes and made 8 total passes between the buildings.  After returning he was arrested but the district attorney agreed to drop all charges against him so long as he would perform for children at a local park, which he did.

      I have a terrible fear of heights.  I can’t climb a step ladder without getting lightheaded!  I also admit that it’s not so much of a fear of heights as it is a fear of falling.  None of us like falling.  The older we get the harder falls become the longer they take to recover from.  Older folks become very cautious walking because of a fear of falling.  On a spiritual level, we need to be cautious about falling into sin.  We should desire to live upright lives that would honor God.  We should be committed to standing firm not falling down.  But what happens when we fall into sin (and rest assured, we will fall from time to time)?  Psalm 118:13 says “I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the LORD helped me.'  Now the Psalmist is talking about literal enemies pushing, but in a spiritual sense sometimes we are pushed, and sometimes we push ourselves into sin.  Sin does indeed cause us to stumble and fall down but God does not intend for us to remain in sin nor does He intend for His children to mire in the trifles of a fallen life.  We have been redeemed by a high price and He desires for us to walk upright for Him.  When we fall God doesn’t quit, He doesn’t throw in the proverbial towel, and He doesn’t stop loving you.  According to the Psalmist, when we fall, God helps us.  We need God’s help at all times, but I think we need it especially when we fall spiritually. When we feel we are least deserving of God’s help is when we need it the most.  It is also readily available in moments of failure and shame.  If you have fallen ask God for help.  He will put you back on your feet again!