The Rope it Lies.
March 2, 2012 § Leave a Comment
As many of you know, I was raised in a Christian home. With Christian values and teachings, hopes and dreams. I enjoyed reading the Bible, gaining insight, and having enlightenment on things that I didn’t understand prior to. My parents did the best that they could to explain these things to me in their own brokenness, speaking out of their own issues.
On the other side of the coin, I went to over twenty five churches making up over ten different denominations and had more ideas thrown at me than a Junior Higher in public school. It was confusing, to say the least. It also made me a great thinker and debater, because it allowed me to see many sides. I didn’t just take life as it was, I questioned it. Just like my father taught me to.
After trying my hand at missions–and wanting to argue my perspective rather than simply do my duties–I came home to write an e-book, which I published on Booklocker.com. The book outlined my thoughts and perspectives on Christianity and what I considered “truth” with a capital “T” at the time.
The following post is one of many thoughts that got that book going. It is my take on Westernized Christianity under the Old Law. Even if you’re not into that, it’s an interesting satirical read of the infamous tight-rope walker from August 19, 2007.
The old law is like walking on a tight rope. High above everyone else, the performer entices the on-lookers to take notice. With the raise of the hand and a wave of clapping from the audience, he steps out onto the wire. Dressed in attire that he would never normally wear, people believe he knows what he is doing.
“He looks as though he’s done this before!”
“Impeccable form!”
“Oh his blue and silver unitard is stunning!”
They exclaim in their so-called knowlege-and-wisdom of circus acts. As the first step is taken, wires wobbling, fists clenched, the crowd looks on. Fear, more so of the eyes burning below, causes him to go like jelly in the knees. The wire wobbles on the second step more so then on the first, gasps can be heard from afar.
As each small step is taken, he helplessly looks down for salvation. Only to discover there is no net underneath him. Rather a small tank of half-starved alligators lurks below. And all he can think of is how the alligators aren’t kosher. His train-of-thought rants on as wobbely baby-steps ensue,
“If they’re not kosher, and I fall into them and and they eat me or any part of me, does that make it unclean? Will I then be too unholy to serve my Lord?”
The wire shakes. On either side are dark figures dressed in black. Their balance is immortal. They squat, wiggle, squirm, taunt, seduce, and distract on either side. They jeer and yet the crowd pays no attention. Too high above to ask them if they can see his taunters, the tight-rope walker deduces his options.
To move forward from this half-way point would be into a darkness that seems no one else can see. To turn around would be the same demise but cowardly to an unbeknownst viewer. To fall would be to be eaten by an unkosher animal and be sent into eternal damnation. Apart from the Ring Leader, the scales have been weighed. Perhaps the measurements were off. He’s really out of options. And as he stands in the center, he realizes these “road blocks” were there from the beginning. He thinks,
“Perhaps I am like Job, so righteous…Satan himself wanted to distract me! Yes, that must be it. Where are my friends so they can give me counsel? Where is my wife so she can bring me a drink?”
The crowd stares in wonderment, dumbfounded by the lack of courage on his part to take another step. They question whether he has real authority. Whether he really is a tight-rope walker. Or if it was just another ploy for them to stare. His heart begins to burn. then pound incessantly. He cries,
“This will never end!”
And the crowd cries silently with him.
