Think Victoriously

“…As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” —Proverbs 23:7

For 70 years Karl Wallenda performed ariel acts on the high wire.  He died in 1978 after falling 120 feet from a tightrope stretched between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico.  He once said, “Being on a tightrope is living. Everything else is waiting.”

After his death, his wife reflected and said, “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to walking across the tightrope was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that. And it seemed to me that he put all of his energies into not falling, rather than walking the tightrope.”  She added that her husband went so far as to personally supervise the installation of the tightrope, making absolutely certain the guide wires were secure. He had always trusted his crew to do this in the past.

He walked the tightrope with the fear of falling plaguing his mind, and his negative thinking created his feeling of insecurity.  He poured all his energy into not falling, and that’s exactly what happened.

This is what often causes us to fail. We are so focused on not failing that instead of succeeding, we end up failing anyway. Don’t think defeat—Think victory.

“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4).