Trapeze
I am writing this in our temporary home in Holland. We just left Barcelona about 2 months ago and in about 5 months from now we will leave here to go to the United States for 2 months. Then, we will arrive in Madrid with no place to stay in the middle of February. I guess you could say that these words strike a chord in my heart:
"I thought of the trapeze artists, swinging on their trapezes high up under the dome of the circus tent. They let go of one trapeze just at the right moment, to hover for a moment in the void before catching hold of the other trapeze. As you watch, you identify yourself with them and experience the anxiety of the middle of the way, when they have to let go of their first support and have not yet seized the second...What is the force that holds men back, which prevents them from letting go of what they would like to let go? It is the middle-of-the-way anxiety. It is the void in which they are going to find themselves before being able to seize a new support. All this to say, we must always be letting go...leaving one place in order to find another, abandoning one support in order to reach the next, turning our backs on the past in order to thrust wholeheartedly toward the future." Paul Tournier in A Place For You
I can identify with the trapeze artist. I, too, have felt the "middle-of-the-way anxiety." That place where you must let go of one thing in order to embrace another. We have just exchanged the known for the unknown. The past for the future.
Perhaps you can relate: maybe you've moved. Maybe you've just changed jobs. Maybe you've started a new relationship with someone special. Maybe you've just lost a loved one. The future is uncertain, but you can't turn back. It feels crazy, like a circus. If only the ringleader would step in and make everything right...
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:28-31
When you're feeling tired and weary, like you've been swinging in the air for ages; when you can't see in the darkness for something to grab hold of; when you feel like letting go but can't because there's no safety net beneath you, then just lift up your head and look (!) --there He is! He's reaching out his hand! He'll catch you. He'll lift you up high above the ground. He promises. You think: "The trapeze ain't as bad as I thought!"
"I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. The Lord will keep you from all harm-he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:1,2,7,8