Getting in the Wheelbarrow

I want to tell you a story...

A story about Charles Blondin (Jean François Gravelet), a famous French tightrope walker.

The most amazing tightrope walker there was in the world.

He went from city to city, and millions of people would come miles to see Blondin do his amazing acts. Tickets to his shows cost a fortune, and everyone who...well… was anyone would do anything to watch him.

Blondins' greatest fame came on September 14, 1860, when he broke the record in becoming the first person to cross a tightrope stretched across the Niagara Falls. People from all over Canada and America travelled great distances to see this great feat.

Blondin confidently took a few slow steps and then picked up the pace until he was in the middle of the rope. The crowd clapped at his daring and skill.

Standing in the middle of the rope, he executed a perfect cartwheel. This solicited more applause as his attentive audience grew larger still. His next trick was a front flip, landing perfectly on the rope and never once losing balance. This truly impressed the crowd and they broke into full blown applause.

He walked across, 160 feet above the falls, several times... each time with a different daring feat - once in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, in the dark, and blindfolded.

Blondin walked to the edge of the canyon and grabbed a wheel barrow. "Who believes I can roll the wheelbarrow to the other side of the falls?" He shouted.

"WE BELEIVE!" Shouted the crowd.

Blondin shouted again- even louder "Who believes that I can push this wheelbarrow across the rope all the way to the other side of the falls?"

"WE BELIEVE" came the roar of the crowd.

Blondin looked still more solemn, and shouted again, as loud as he could. "Do you truly believe I am capable of pushing this wheel barrow to the other side of this great, deep canyon?"

"WE BELEIVE!" Came the roar back. Everyone was shouting, cheering, yelling, screaming.

"Okay," screamed the Great Charles. Everyone was quiet.
"So...Who wants to get into the wheelbarrow?."

You could hear a pin drop. No one said a word.

Dear brothers and sisters,

This unique story illustrates a real life picture of what faith actually is. The crowd watched these daring feats. They believed. Well they said they believed. They believed from far away. They believed when they weren't the ones involved, when they weren't asked to trust in it. They believed. Did they trust?

"Sure we believe....but to...get in?" We ask. "Not me....uh, you can go first" we say as we push someone next to us.

Faith is the roaring response of the crowd; trust is climbing into the wheelbarrow.

There are two words often lumped together and commonly perceived as synonymous, when in reality they are not.

The two are Faith and Trust.

Faith is believing that Hashem exists. Trust is trusting Him. Getting in the wheel barrow and trusting him with your life.

It is easy for me to believe the Hashem can do anything. For me to say and preach this. Comfort people and tell them G-d loves them, to trust Hashem. But when it comes to ourselves? Suddenly it's all gone.

Faith without action is nothing.

Can you climb into your wheelbarrow?