Nik Wallenda crossed the Grand Canyon successfully tonight, without a safety harness, while proclaiming his faith and trust in Jesus.
“Thank you, Jesus,” he said several times during his walk across the 1,400-foot tightrope over 1,500 feet above the canyon (a height taller than the Empire State Building).
During my interview with him last week, my palms were sweating and I got the jitters, and he wasn’t even on the wire yet. His optimism, faith and trust in Jesus, and excitement for the upcoming event were obvious. When we hung up the phone, he was confident, and I knew God was on his side — but also knew failure was an option (his great-grandfather lost his life after falling from a tightrope strung between Puerto Rico’s Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza Hotel towers in 1978).
During our interview, Wallenda recognized the risk of failure, but was insistent that: “If you set your mind to it, if you train hard enough, if you focus enough, you can accomplish anything in life, no matter who you are.”
To me, Nik’s successful walk tonight proves one thing: that God will come through, always.
I also believe it means, as Nik says, nothing is impossible — if you set your mind to it, if you train hard enough, if you focus enough, and if you trust God is big enough to accomplish more than you could ever ask or imagine. Jesus came to give us abundant life, hope, excitement, exuberance, confidence, and unfailing hope – and Nik’s successful walk across the canyon is one small example of God’s faithfulness.
“One of the questions I always get is, ‘Are you testing your faith / are you testing God?’,” Nik said during our interview. “I don’t see it like that at all. I don’t believe God keeps me on the wire. I believe God gives me a unique ability to walk the wire, but it’s up to me whether I train properly. There’s a lot of people that have amazing relationships with Christ that lose their lives in a car accident. Does that mean they didn’t have a good enough relationship with Jesus? No. Life happens and God created us all in his image, but we’re all our own people. We’re not robots. We make decisions. So I don’t think that I’m testing God. Again, I don’t think he keeps me up there, but I definitely know where I’m going if I were to fall and lose my life.”
Nik Wallenda completes death-defying feats by remembering these three simple words: “Never give up.”
A majority of the 700,000+ “#Skywire” and “#SkywireLive” people Tweeting about the event were supporting Nik all the way. But, much to my dismay, a few were pessimistic pleas for failure (see gallery below).
“I hope what people see me do inspires them to believe nothing is impossible,” Nik said.
So why not? Go out and do something you once thought was impossible – and remember:
“I lift my eyes up – my help comes from the Lord.” – Psalm 121
Read my entire interview with Nik about his faith on Christianity Today: “Walking by Faith Across a Grand Canyon Tightrope.”