Lovely sunny day – check. Visiting a friend – check. In the beautiful Alpine city of Grenoble, France – check. Include a visit to La Bastille – check. Lunch afterwards – double check. So much to look forward to on the day’s agenda. Until that fearsome, life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment! Blissfully following GPS instructions when, just a minute till arrival, what to my acrophobic eyes should appear but a string of fragile, glassed-in, red bubbles, suspended from an even more fragile cable, rising high above the road we were on, above the Isère River to our left, on their 2250-foot trek up, up, up (and I mean up!) an additional, uncalled for, dizzying height (860 feet!!) where our tourist nemesis could be seen smirking down on us. The sun stopped shining! The air grew suddenly cold! Death’s chill gutted me. My palms went sweaty. Survival instinct kicked in and I looked over at Sue and declared, “I’m not doing that!” to which she compassionately, lovingly replied: “Oh, yes you are!” Did I mention that I never wanted to come here anyway? Minutes later, we entered the death chamber. I closed my eyes, held my breath and was about to reach 5,000 in my head count as we lurched to a halt. I have no recollection of that visit in the ethers, but the remake of the ascent (the much-dreaded return!) must be where all my gray hair came from! I tell this tragic tale, not for your sympathy, but to say that the carrying out of our Kingdom Ambassadorship may include unforeseen challenges to our sensibilities (although likely none so harrowing as the above). God’s plan for us is always accompanied by his promised and loving provision. It may, however, take us to regions cross-cultural (heights unexplored?) and far-flung – like across the street to a neighbor or across town to ‘those’ people or across the world – to make dear, lifelong friends. Anyone ‘up’ for adventure? PD
Anyone ‘Up’ for Adventure?
