Tightrope

Bart and I have been talking a lot lately about what it was like to be young.  I'm not sure when that switched -- that thinking from "the future is going to be so awesome" to "Wow, we sure miss those days."  It may be because I"m working with some pretty cool younger people at this point in my life and I am motivated  (and exhausted) by their energy.  Or maybe it's just the realization that our kids will never be little again and that even our grandkids are aging.   But we are missing those days... those days when every day is an adventure and life is full of promise.

I recently bought the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman and somehow my "iPod got stuck on replay" last night with the song Tightrope that I had never heard before.  And I realized that this song would have been a song that I sung to Jesus as a young adult:

Some people long for a life that is simple and planned

Tied with a ribbon

Some people won't sail the sea 'cause they're safer on land

To follow what's written

But I'd follow you to the great unknown

Off to a world we call our own

Hand in my hand and we promised to never let go

We're walking the tightrope

High in the sky

We can see the whole world down below

We're walking the tightrope

Never sure, never know how far we could fall

But it's all an adventure

That comes with a breathtaking view

Walking the tightrope.

But as I began to ponder what was, I realized that I got this spirit of adventure from my Mom and that she still has it, at the age of almost 91 there in the nursing home.  This is what she said the other day when I called her, her voice strong and full of joy.

"I just had the most marvelous day!  First of all, my favorite friend who gives me my morning medication saw the hymn book by my bed and we sang together at the top of our lungs!   Then the elevator was fixed so now we can go upstairs!  And, NOBODY here has the flu!  God has answered so many of my prayers today ... all at once!”

As I hung up I realized that just because I am no longer young, full of energy and physical strength, I am still able to have an adventure of a life before me.  There is no ending to that adventure, no matter how old I get.

So today I invite you to whisper an invitation to God to walk on his tightrope .... a life of adventure that is not tidy, nor simple, nor easy -- but has a breathtaking view!