Walking on a Tightrope Wire

One of the stories I read as a BookPAL volunteer at Galveston Elementary school is The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. It is the true story of  Philippe Petit, a young French aerialist, who rigged a cable between the World Trade Center towers in 1974 and spent almost an hour walking, dancing and performing tricks above the heads of astonished onlookers.

It's a story about a tightrope walker, but it is more than that. It is a story about bravery and beauty and determination.

It made me think of my dad.

My dad has been diagnosed with melanoma.

It is serious enough that doctors are talking treatment plans

and lasting side effects

and life expectancy.

It has put our entire family on a tightrope wire act. Step by step we walk out the reality of my dad's disease as we hold onto hope, balancing our way above a minefield of fear and despair as we cling to our faith and belief in the possibility of the impossible.

It is a story about bravery

and beauty

and determination.

Some would argue that we are in denial. That this is not hope.

And I admit it is a fine line.

A thin wire.

A balancing act.

Step by step we make our way across.

1 Corinthians 13:13 reminds us that at the end of all things, faith, hope, and love will remain. Hope is more than wishful thinking. Hope stands tall between her two friends, faith and love, making a powerful trio. Hope takes the steps across the wire, but right there, on her shoulders, are faith and love, cheering her across.

It is to this hope I cling for my dad, believing that there is a tomorrow out there in which he will be cancer-free. Sometimes, I think, we find ourselves living in the belief of that tomorrow, rather than in the reality of today. This can come across as denial, but I want to argue that it is hope.

Romans 8:25 says, "But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."

So, in the midst of doctor visits, medications and treatments, we search eagerly for that tomorrow, not always knowing on which side of eternity it will find us.

But in hope, we know it will.