Recently, I took my daughter and her friend to Go Ape! in Thetford Forest. It is one of those three-hour treetop experiences with zip wires and high-tension cables where you move around 12 metres above ground wondering why on earth you ever agreed to do it.
Described as the ‘mother of all our courses’, it features a crossing some 26 metres from platform to platform. It feels like 260.
Now, as you might have guessed, I am not one for heights, but sometimes a dad has to do what a dad has to do. So not wanting to come across to my daughter’s friend as a wuss, I reluctantly got all kitted up with a safety harness and, armed with weak smile, headed for the first rope ladder.
Okay so 12 metres might not sound very high, but I tell you when you are walking on a wire between one narrow pine tree platform to another it might as well as be wing-walking on a circus stunt bi-plane.
Our safety trainer had given us clear instructions: we were to keep the red safety cable attached to the high-tension wires at all times. Also, and this bit really got me, I was solely responsible for the safety of the two young girls. I thought, “You’re kidding me. right? It’s every man for himself up there!”
Of course, fatherly instincts kicked in and after a couple of crossings I got to trust the thin red cable which my life and theirs depended upon. What’s more, I think the girls almost trusted me that I really wouldn’t let anything happen to them.
All too often we can find ourselves in situations which, well, quite frankly scare us. Sometimes these are self-made, sometimes not. We are out of our comfort zone and begin to worry how we are going to get though it all.
It might be marriage difficulties, money worries, serious illness, impending redundancy - you name it. As adults we can feel embarrassed. I know this is quite likely true for blokes. And for the young single mum I think it is especially true. It is hard to be brave in front of your kids when it is just you making the decisions.
It is at times like these good to know that we can call on help from a loving and personal God. One of the most effective prayers I have learnt along the way is: “Oh, God, oh God, help! Amen.” It is perhaps not the most religious or wordy of prayers, but it sure does work.
The Bible has some great words of encouragement for all of us struggling with that high wire experience: “Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.” (Deuteronomy 33:12)
There is something inside all of us that wants to know that we’ve got a red safety wire attached to us - ready for when we slip or fall. Because it is very likely that we will. The wire that God offers us in his son Jesus Christ, but he brings more than comfort or reassurance, he saves lives.
John Donne, the great 17th century writer put it eloquently when he said, “No man is an island.” None of us are meant to go it alone whether faced with fear and difficulties or not. It is far from weak to rely on God as being our red safety wire. In fact, it’s just plain wise.
ASD
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