Our building is in the process of being painted. This week the hanging scaffolding passed our balcony. I was impressed by the way the two workmen lightheartedly bantered, joked and even sang as they went about their work. Their relaxed demeanor seemed extraordinary considering they were dangling 220 feet above the ground by two, 3/8 inch steel cables. The men who clean the windows of the world’s tallest building (the Burj Khalifa in Dubai) don’t even use a platform. They simply strap on rappelling gear and swing a leg over into the dizzying void. In a video about their work I saw the same phenomena I’d witnessed from my balcony; relaxed chitchat, casual repartee between men dangling from threads 160 stories above terra firma. How can people do anything at that height but desperately grasp the rope and cry out for Jesus?!? How can they become comfortable in their peril?
They have learned to trust their rope. It was not that way the first time they climbed onto the platform or over the railing. They had to do that by relying on someone else’s testimony. But now they have personal experience that tells them their equipment will not let them down (literally). It takes the men who clean the Khalifa’s windows three months from start to finish … and then they start again. Almost every day of the year they trust their life to the rope. Eventually they look as comfortable on their thread as I might in my favorite chair.
If you meet a Christian who seems at peace in the face of trying or even dangerous circumstances … that didn’t just happen. It came with listening to God’s word (Romans 10:17) and then acting on what they heard (James 1:22). It came from repeatedly testing the rope of God’s faithfulness and finding it sound.
