Allison Janae Blog

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I recently listened to the Christian podcast Gospel Spice, and in this particular episode, the guest speaker shared a poignant story that he used to explain our relationship with Jesus (you can listen to it on Stéphanie Rousselle’s podcast here). This is my summarized version:

There was a famous tightrope walker in the 1800s who performed daring feats on a wire suspended over Niagara Falls. Most people who went to watch him doubted he would live to see another day- but over time, people began to have confidence in him as each of his acts progressed in danger and he succeeded at every one. He is supposed to have once asked a crowd if they believed he could do anything, to which they replied an emphatic “Yes!” He told them if they believed he could do truly anything, they would volunteer themselves to ride on his back across the tightrope. The crowd was silent. He could surely do anything on that tightrope- but no one trusted him enough to risk their life to prove it. 
… except one man, who said he would ride on the tightrope walker’s back. The two of them made it part of the way over the chasm, but their combined weight was too much for the hardware, and the wires began to come apart. The tightrope walker told the man clinging to his back, “If we are to make it across, you must do as I do. Sway when I sway, move when I move. We are no longer two, but one man. If you do not do this, we will perish.”

Miraculously, they both made it across. I try to imagine the volunteer man’s fear on that swaying wire. I imagine the adrenaline he must have felt at having to prove his trust in the other man’s skill and ability. I imagine the crowd’s exultant, probably tearful hollers once they reached safety. I am certain the volunteer’s life was radically changed by the experience.

Patrick Miller, the guest on the aforementioned podcast, tied this story to our walk with Jesus:

“I think [this is] the opportunity Jesus is offering every single one of us. We are all cheering as we see him go across the tightrope: he goes through death and he comes out the other side alive, and we’re like “You can do anything! You’re amazing!” And he goes, “Okay, you believe in me? Well, who wants to get on my back?” Not a lot of people raise their hands. … But here’s the deal: if you raise your hand, you get to be on Jesus’ back. You get to become one with Him. When He sways, you sway, when He moves you move. And if that’s what you want in your life, if you want that kind of joy, if you want that kind of connection with Jesus, you can’t do it from the sidelines. You have to raise your hand…” ²

Following Jesus

Following Jesus is the riskiest thing a human being can ever do. We have to give Him total control- but that does not mean we are mindlessly meandering along, stepping in his footprints without looking up at the road. We are involved in the same danger, risk, and the glory that Jesus is. He won’t drag us unwillingly through the mud. He will only have us if we whole-heartedly risk it all for Him- just as He has (and one could say continues) to risk it all for us. 

I feel that I am living this “risk it all” profoundly right now. I’d love to write you a blog post that tells about how I learned this great thing about Jesus, and “look, see how He’s changed my life, and how great things are! I have unending joy and peace now…blah blah…” But I honestly, none of those things feels true for me right now. My life feels more like a chaotic, (although blessed) whirlwind of change, doubt, and new beginnings. It’s a lot of me trying to figure out what’s right and what God wants me to do, of being frustrated and a little hopeless at where am in life and asking God why He seems to have led me on this path. 

There is so much beauty and hope in my life- but there is also questioning. There is weariness. If you are in a similar boat, that’s ok. Don’t sweep the pain or doubt under the rug- embrace it appropriately. We can only step into the risk of living for Jesus when we acknowledge the danger before us. When we trust Him, knowing it will cost us everything. For me, that means trusting Him with my job, my marriage, my family; and it means trusting Him with hardest of all: my dreams and plans.

To quote again one of my favorite passages in Scripture, Romans 8 tells us:

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Romans 8:16-18

Now, I already wrote an article about how we cannot share in the glory of Jesus without also experiencing His suffering- so I won’t go far into that here. The main thing is, as Romans and other parts of Scripture remind us (for some examples, see 2 Corinthians 4:17 Hebrews 12:11, James 1,  and 1 Peter 5:10), the pain and the risk come first- and the glorious victory comes second.

I want to introduce (or reintroduce) three men written of in the Old Testament: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The time is about 605 BC, and these men’s home country of Israel is being held in captivity by the foreign nation Babylon. The king of Babylon, the infamous Nebuchadnezzar, has just erected an enormous golden statue and has commanded everyone- no matter their religion, ethnicity, or language- to bow before it and worship it every time they hear certain musical fanfare. 

Our three Jewish friends, each officials in the province, refuse to bow to the statue in order to stay true to their faith in God- even though they know the cost is immediate death by being burned alive. They are tattled on about this disoebidence and brought before King Nebuchadnezzar, who says to them, “But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” (Daniel 2:15b)

I wonder what the scene looked like. Did the three men exchange glances, images whirling in their minds of the loved ones they would surely soon be leaving behind? One of the three answers the king, and I can almost hear the assured boldness his voice must have carried: 

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Those are some pretty fiery (pun intended) last words. The risk before them was obvious and complete, but they chose to trust their Maker, knowing it was worth the risk.

The story doesn’t end with their death- although if it did, it would still surely speak to us, but God had a different story He wanted to tell: When Abednego, Meshach, and Shadrach were shoved into the furnace, it was so hot that it killed the guards pushing them in. 

When King Nebuchadnezzar glances into the furnace, he sees not three dead men, but four, unbound, perfectly unharmed men standing in the flames. The king and his officials can identify three as our Jewish friends, but the fourth appears “like a son of the gods” (whether this man is an angel or an incarnation of Jesus Himself, I’ll leave up to you to study in your own time).

The three men (we aren’t told anything else about the fourth guy) are brought out, and not even the hair on their heads nor the clothes on their bodies is singed or tainted with smoke. Nebuchadnezzar says, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.”

We aren’t told here if any of the others standing nearby turn away from the false religion of Babylon and turn to the One True God. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have a change of heart soon after these events, but it’s hard to tell if it’s genuine. Yet I am certain that the testimony of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego changed many lives in their day- and whose story continues to change us now. That impact was only possible because they risked it all.

Stepping onto the wire

I know you, reader, are likely not facing life-threatening conditions in your walk with Jesus. Sometimes it feels that way to us, but here in the West, we have a lot that makes our lives easy. Danger isn’t forced upon us in everyday life the way it is for people in third-world or war-torn countries, yet this does not discount our call to risk: we who are given much, have much to risk for God’s kingdom, and much will be required of us (think of the rich young ruler in Luke 18:18, or the parable of the sowers in Luke 12).

We are followers of Jesus- and even just skim-read through the Gospels will tell you pretty quickly that He was not some docile, soft-spoken, uninvolved guy. He turned over tables (literally, and figuratively) and shook up a spiritually dry and legalistic nation. Jesus took many risks in His life and ministry, even to the point of death on a Roman torture device.

If you believe in Jesus, this is the God you serve: the King of the Universe, the One who conquered death. As His followers, we aren’t called to simply be “good people”- we are called to live the adventure of lives fully surrendered, fully risking for God.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”  – 1 Peter 4:12-13 (ESV)

I want you to think back on the tightrope story at the beginning. Jesus is standing on the wire, over the chasm, and He is reaching out a hand to you, asking you if you’ll come up and follow His lead. Everyone and everything you’ve ever known is behind you- taking Jesus’ hand will mean leaving the safety of the familiar ground. 

Now you have to make a choice, and there are only two when it comes to following Jesus:

1.  Remain a cheerleader on the sidelines: speaking praises of Jesus but missing out on the real adventure.
2. Become a Risk-taking follower: turning away from the crowd, putting it all on the line, and becoming one with Him. 

Jesus is inviting us all to something terrifyingly glorious. Will you watch Him move over the chasm of the impossible, cheering Him on from the sidelines; or will you take His hand, risk it ALL, and join Him?

Footnotes

1.  Photo by Ben Neale on Pexels.com ↩︎
2. Rousselle, Stéphanie, host. Miller, Patrick, guest. “Engaging & Resisting Culture with Christlike Faith.” Gospel Spice, season 16, episode 376, Gospel Spice Ministries, 28 January 2025, https://www.podcastics.com/podcast/episode/engaging-and-resisting-culture-with-christlike-faith-with-patrick-miller-330519/