The Rope Path

Yesterday, one of my Facebook friends posted a short movie about the narrowest hiking path in the world. The photographer started panning from his shoes that stood upon a 2 x 8-inch board attached to something. It was something unknown to the viewer. As I saw his feet, the camera caught the immense distance from the pair of shoes on the board to the floor of the canyon. It looked to me to be a drop-off. Straight down. A massive rocky cliff. The distance dwarfed the trees and shrubs that lined my view, believed to be a raging river at the bottom that was barely visible.

Path Against the Wall

As the camera moved to the left, revealing the hiker’s next step off the plank, the “path” became a rope against the massive granite wall. My mouth literally drops open as I see there are actually men, local indigenous men, stepping sideways along the rope with their bodies facing the rock. Their hands gripped tightly to a second rope about chest high. Anxiously I observed them maneuver around the face of solid stone. With this scene fresh in my mind, the word “path” takes on a very different meaning.

What Is My Rope?

I have no idea what that experience is like. Or do I? As I stop considering my precarious life on the outer crust of this fragile planet that twirls around in space, I begin to think that I might have more in common with those men stepping sideways on their rope “path” than I have previously considered. You and I live surrounded by danger and risks to our temporal lives as if we, too, are inching our way along a rope attached to a rock face. I wonder why at times, I feel so safe, so comfortable. Am I more like the men clinging to the rope than I am even aware of? If so, what is my rope? What is yours?

Rope of Faith

Thus far, my journey on the path with God has strengthened my faith in Him. Every trial, burden, or grief becomes another opportunity for me to practice rope walking, faith walking. When we read the stories of Moses, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, and Joseph, aren’t we thrilled by the rich evidence of God’s faithfulness? He guided these Bible heroes on their paths that narrowed down to just a rope, just their faith. When our life encounters difficulties and seemingly impassable situations, God’s rope of faith is more dependable than a 20-foot wide road. Life on the edge inching step by step with my Savior, keeps my face towards the Rock. Considering my options, I’ll live the radical, apparent risk-filled life that is really more secure than anything this world can offer.

In actuality, our life of faith is more about The Rope than the potential to fall. Why? Because He took the fall so that we never will. . . Because The Rope has the ability to grip our feeble hold with greater strength than we can take hold of Him. . . And because all it takes is our willingness to be held by Him. . . Because He is the one in whom we place our faith. . . And because He has a personal connection that safely elicits our trust based on His pure, perfect sacrificial love. . . And this is enough for me to take the next step on The Rope, hand in hand with The Rope, no matter how narrow my path gets.

Karen Nicola writes from Northern California.

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