“Ladies and gentlemen! Step right up and direct your attention to the high flying acrobats in the big top! “
No circus is complete without the daring young men and women of the flying trapeze. People are fascinated, not because it is difficult to hang onto the bar, but because of that one second when the performer lets go of the old bar and reaches for the new one. In that instant the acrobat’s whole being is focused.
His thoughts are focused on the bar –
not about what he was doing yesterday, or
what he plans to do tomorrow.
His eyes are focused on the bar –
not looking down, or
backwards or up.
His entire body is in motion toward the bar –
knowing he cannot turn around and go back,
he cannot steady himself on solid ground.
He is committed to seize it when the timing is right and move forward.
Progress in life comes when an opportunity – a choice, a possibility to change – swings into view. To grasp the new bar we must let go of the old, swinging from one trapeze to another. Sometimes we are simply hanging on for dear life, not going anywhere, and trying not to fall. Other times we are moving forward, then backwards; stuck in the swing of a cycle, making no significant progress. Yet there are also times when we look ahead in the distance, and see another trapeze bar swinging toward us. It’s empty, and we know it has our name written on it. We know that in order to move forward we have to release our grip on the present, well-known bar and move to the new unknown one.
Each time it happens we pray we won’t have to grab the new one. It doesn’t matter that in all our previous leaps across the void of the unknown, we have always made it. Each time we are afraid we will miss, that we will fall and crash against the harsh realities of life. We have no guarantee, no net, no insurance policy, but we do it anyway because we have decided that to keep hanging onto that old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives. And so for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, we soar across a gap of uncertainty reaching for an opportunity.
This gap is called a transition and it is in these gaps that life is experienced in its fullest. Transitions in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored, even treasured. Even with all the struggles, fears, and feelings of being out-of-control that accompany transitions, they are still the moments when we feel most alive and experience the greatest spiritual growth.
Its time to let go of that which holds you back,
to trade your security for opportunity,
to begin the transition to progress in your spiritual life.
When you do so, you’ll discover that high flyers are not found only in the circus.
Copyright 2003 by Ken Sapp
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.