Helen Tyte
Belief or Faith?
Imagine the scene: you are standing next to Niagara Falls listening to the water pounding down in front of you. You look across the quarter of a mile expanse and see a tightrope stretched all the way across to the other side. As you watch open-mouthed, you see a man step onto the rope and walk across. The gasps from those around you are audible, even with the deafening roar from the waterfall.
I’m not sure it would be allowed today with all the concerns about health and safety, but this amazing feat made Charles Blondin famous in the summer of 1859. On several occasions he crossed the gorge back and forth between Canada and the US, 160 feet above the water. Crowds gathered to watch him and each time he tried to increase the impact of his performance. He crossed the tightrope in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, and once he carried a stove and cooked an omelette halfway across!
I find it difficult to walk in a straight line on flat ground, but on July 15th 1859, Blondin walked backward across the tightrope to Canada and returned pushing a wheelbarrow.
After pushing the wheelbarrow across while blindfolded Blondin asked for audience participation from those who had gathered to watch. Time and again he had proven that he could do it, and there was no doubt that Blondin could cross that tightrope. This time he was asking for a volunteer to get into the wheelbarrow and take a ride across with him.
“Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?” Blondin asked the gathered masses. Of course the crowd shouted yes, they believed!
He then asked “Who will get in the wheelbarrow?”
Of course, nobody did.
The story of Charles Blondin paints a real life picture of what faith is actually like. The crowd had watched his daring feats. They all said they believed, but their actions proved they didn’t have faith that he could cross the expanse without falling.
It’s one thing for us to say we believe in God. But true faith shows when we believe in God and fully put our trust in the Holy Trinity, that we are forgiven, loved and that we are all precious to God. There are times in our lives when we will be like the crowds, saying that we believe but afraid to trust completely, especially when things get tough. But you can have absolute faith in God’s unwavering love.
In August of 1859, Blondin’s manager, Harry Colcord, did show his faith and rode on his back all the way across the Falls.
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The thought of that is truly frightening, just as it is to put blind faith in God.
As an ex-service man I have on occasions been in a situation where my faith, that God will protect me, has been the only reassurance to give me the courage to enter that situation.