Non-Acrophobic Mercy

Hello, my name is Trish, and I am a recovering acrophobic. 

(Hi, Trish.)

Today - well, actually for the past four days - I climbed up a 22' scaffold, stood on a platform there for three hours, then climbed down without incident. 

(Polite applause.)

I will be continuing this routine for the next two days, taking a break, and doing it ten or eleven times after that throughout the next month. Thank you. 

(More polite applause as I sit.)

There may not be a real Acrophobics Anonymous (fear of heights, for those who don't know), but my current height-encountering sessions make for pretty good immersive therapy! See, a while back I agreed to run a spotlight for this show my roommate is stage managing for (CCT's Les Miserables), and THEN she told me that I wouldn't be in a nice little balcony to do it... nope. This show is taking place in the Mt. Helix amphitheater, and it wasn't until move-in that I discovered that I would be twenty-two feet in the air every night. Now, I'm the kind of person who freaks out going up ladders. Two years ago, going up in a cable car had me white-knuckled and breathing heavily. (For more examples, see my previous post entitled "Trust Fall".) I've been working on overcoming this fear gradually, but this spotlight gig has been the ultimate test of my trust in God, human architecture, and steel cables. I'm usually okay with the height once I've been up on the tower for a couple minutes, but climbing up every evening is probably one of the scariest things I've ever done. The first few times, we didn't even have safety cables on the way up and down! We had to clip our harnesses in once we got to the top and unhook them before we climbed down! As of last night, we can now go all the way to the ground with our new (and longer) fall cables (YAY!), so it's a little less scary to make the climb. Still though, every time I get halfway up, my muscles start tensing like nobody's business and I have to really concentrate in order to force myself to climb the last few rungs without panicking. Tonight when I got back from the show (opening night was tonight!), I went on Facebook and a friend of mine had posted this verse as her status:

"He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:10-12

What an amazing verse! Of course, it's always been great, but this part especially stood out to me in light of my circumstances: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him". Do you know how high the heavens are above the earth? I have no idea what the exact distance is, but I can tell that it is a freakin' HUGE gap. Twenty-two feet off the ground feels like a mile when you look down over the edge, but when you look up you realize the sky really hasn't gotten any closer. To think of how many feet up the sky is melts my brain a little. And to think that the ENTIRE space between down here on earth and up there in heaven is comparative to the depth of God's MERCY... wow. That's a whole lot of grace right there. Seriously, think of the highest place you've ever stood, think of how far away the sky was, and imagine God's mercy filling that whole space. Absolutely incredible. 

That's basically it for this post. Just revel in that incredible depth. 

Below is a shot of the show taken from near the top of the amphitheater! My tower is that little platform at the very top right of both pictures. If you look closely at it in the lower image, you can barely see my silhouette to the left of the brightly lit music stand (which is holding my light cues)! #CCTLesMis