Nik Wallenda - Facing Fear: Step Out in Faith and Rise Above Whats Holding You Back

Facing Fear

2020 Nik Wallenda

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Any internet addresses, phone numbers, or company or product information printed in this book are offered as a resource and are not intended in any way to be or to imply an endorsement by Thomas Nelson, nor does Thomas Nelson vouch for the existence, content, or services of these sites, phone numbers, companies, or products beyond the life of this book.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-7852-3429-6 (audiobook)

ISBN 978-0-7852-3428-9 (eBook)

ISBN 978-0-7852-3427-2 (TP)

Epub Edition AUGUST 2020 9780785234289

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020939955

Printed in the United States of America

20 21 22 23 24 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

To my wife, Erendira, for your selfless love
and support, as weve literally walked
the highs and lows of life together.

To my kids, Yanni, Amadaos, and
Evita, whom I pray for daily as you
courageously pursue your dreams.

To my sister, Lijana, who inspired me to truly
understand what it means to never give up.

NW

To Will and Maddie. I hope you have the
friendship and partnership that Nik and
Lijana developed. Face fears together!

DY

CONTENTS

THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK IN SARASOTA TO THE members of Bayside Community Church in August 2019 was one I was excited to accept, but as usual the opportunity turned out to give me more than I was able to give the congregants.

At the end of the first service, I was heading back to the greenroom they had set up for me when the lead pastor asked if he could introduce me to one of his church members. It was Nik Wallenda. I have to admit, I knew some of the legend of his amazing family but didnt know as much as I should have of Niks personal story. Yet as he began telling me about his life, his sister, the accident, and how they had walked Times Square... I found myself leaning in. I was locked in and couldnt wait to hear more.

He shared how the journey had taught him more about facing fear than any previous experience in his life. This from a guy who walked over Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon!

I was in full learning mode.

I kept thinking the same words but didnt want to interrupt. Finally he hit a break in the story and I just blurted, Have you ever thought about writing a book? I could only imagine that if he could rivet me in that thirty minutes, I would absolutely sit down and read any and every word he had to write.

Ive written one, Nik said, but Im getting ready to write another. I just cant find the right cowriter.

I knew whom he had to use and connected him immediately to Don Yaeger.

But just as quickly, I told him he needed to get going on his third book. I wanted to learn more about his amazing marriage and all that it takes to build a relationship like the one he shares with his wife, Erendira. The support they offer each other and the way they follow their faith into challenging times make theirs a marriage I wanted to learn more from.

Let me get through book two first! Nik said.

I was a fan of the Wallenda legend before the greenroom.

Im a greater fan today and cant wait to continue growing while helping Nik share his story.

This is a book we all can use. I am honored to have a small piece in helping it come together.

John C. Maxwell

May 2020

ONE BAD EXPERIENCE. THATS ALL IT TAKES.

A bad week. A bad day. A bad moment. One wrong step, and suddenly the world is upside down, spinning out of control, and before you know it, nothing is the same.

Thats what happened to me. I was in a circus tent in Sarasota, Florida, the place I call home between my different adventures. Im an aerialista wire walkerand I make my living by placing one foot in front of the other and trusting my training and my skill to keep me alive. But one day, things changed when I put my foot on a wire as a part of a world-record-attempt eight-person pyramid... and we fell.

Suddenly, nothing was the same.

Maybe youve had a terrible experience that caused you to fall, to question all that seemed stable in your life. Maybe you grew up with an abusive parent or are in a relationship with a manipulative partner. Maybe you had a fight with a loved one. Or accepted a new job only to find out your boss is harsh and overly demanding. Maybe you were in a car accident or experienced a sudden illness or financial downfall you never saw coming. Maybe it was a virus that rocked an entire world.

Whatever your circumstance, this book is for you. Its a book about fearsomething we all face. Fear that tells us were not good enough to do whatever we were made to do. Im writing it for you because I want to share what Ive learned from a long and hard-fought journey.

In 1978, my great-grandfather Karl Wallenda fell to his death from a high wire strung between two buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was in his seventies, old for a wire walker, and the rigging of his wire just wasnt right.

In the video footage, you can see him sit down and then start to grab the wiresomething that we have been trained to do for generations. The wire is our safe spot. But once he got down to the wire, he didnt have the strength to hold on. Doctors told our family that there was such a surge of adrenaline to his heart, it overwhelmed him and quite possibly caused him to go into cardiac arrestin turn, he fell from the wire. We are sure his age and several previous injuries were major contributors to his not being able to handle the adrenaline rush.

Doing the one thing he was trained to do to keep safe led to my great-grandfathers death.

I grew up watching that video because my parents were wire walkers too. In fact, they met because my great-grandfather recruited them both to be part of his troupe. Back then, there were still plenty of circuses that traveled the world, and the Great Wallendas were a big draw for many. My familys patented style of aerial courageworking without the safety of a netwas always a highlight of any show.