On the Brink?

“Whoa!” I said—not to myself—but loud enough for everyone to hear. I nearly slipped as I carefully meandered down a zigzagging trail at the Grand Canyon National Park. I was shocked to find out our trail was only a couple of feet wide with absolutely no handles, handrails, etc.


I looked around and thought to myself, “I’m right on the edge. What do I grab if I slip?” I looked at April. We had only been married for a year now. I thought, “If I slip, I’ll grab her.” Just one problem, she was about 5 feet tall and only about 115 pounds. I didn’t really like my odds. I knew she would grab me and hold on. After all, I didn’t have a life insurance policy. I just thought one of us should survive to tell the story.


I did notice that every 10 or 20 feet there were these small half-bush, half-tree shrubs jutting out of the cliffs and rocks. “Great.” I mused. “If I do slip…and manage to grab this Arizona ‘bonsai’…my life will utterly depend on my grip and the root structure of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.”

It’s a little intimidating…on the brink. The view is gorgeous and exhilarating—but the edge…the rim…the brink—can be terrifying. The brink of faith is no different. Now humor me for a moment. What about God? The possibility of God’s existence demands that we take a closer look at belief, rather than just “blow it off” or save the discussion for a “rainy day.”


If God does not exist, then there is no problem, no harm, no foul, and no “mea culpa.” Go and live life—get all that you can and “can” all that you get. If this is all that there is, then by all means enjoy it without hurting others.


But if God does exist, then that’s a whole new ball game. If God exists, he is bigger than us and we are ultimately responsible to Him. He must have some sort of reason for putting me here—else my life and His effort is a colossal waste of cosmic time.

Of course I did not die on the edge of the Grand Canyon that summer day. In fact, I was with a group of teenagers who literally ran the course—with no fear of how close they were to danger. I have often wondered why they were not afraid. I tend to believe they were not afraid, because they had been on the edge of the canyon before. They had been on the brink and lived to tell about. Of course, the more plausible explanation is that they were too young for their brains to have fully developed enough to be concerned about the danger.

In any case, I have been on the brink of faith. Maybe I’ll share that some time. I was not born in a Christian home. I remember life without faith in God. I have stood on the edge and have been absolutely terrified. But now I run that trail…because I have been here before. What about you? Where are you?