Nik Wallenda: Blindfolded? Another Incredibly Risky High Wire Walk, This Time from Skyscrapers in Chicago...

Wendy Griffith : Oct 31, 2014
CBN News

"I have peace in where I'm gonna end up if I were to lose my life. However, I have a beautiful wife and three beautiful children. I have no desire of losing my life on a wire. That's why I train so hard, that's why I train, knowing that I won't even step foot on that wire if the winds exceed 50 miles per hour that night." -Nik Wallenda

[CBN News] Millions will be glued to their television sets this Sunday evening, Nov. 2, as hire-wire artist Nik Wallenda attempts his most challenging tight-rope walk ever. (Photo via CBN News)

On a recent beautiful evening in Sarasota, Florida, a crowd gathered to watch hometown hero Nik Wallenda practice what he does best.

Wallenda comes from seven generations of high-wire artists, including his own mother. The two shared the wire in Puerto Rico in 2011 in honor of his great-grandfather Karl Wallenda, who fell to his death there in 1978 at the age of 73.

Nik Wallenda successfully crossed Niagara Falls in 2012 and the Grand Canyon in 2013. But now, he wants to do something really hard: a 50-story high walk between skyscrapers at a 15-degree incline in one of the gustiest corridors of Chicago.

Oh yeah... and part of it blind-folded! There will be no safety net and no harness.

CBN's Wendy Griffith asked Wallenda if he ever feels like he's tempting God with these dangerous acrobatics. (Photo via CBN News)

"You know, I don't," he said. "Don't we walk by faith, not by sight?" (Referring to the scripture in 2 Corin. 5:7.)

"This is something that I have trained for my entire life. I've trained to walk a wire since I was 2 years old. If I were to not train at all, if I were to tell you, 'Wendy, you're gonna walk the city of Chicago blindfolded,' that would be tempting God, in my opinion," Wallenda said.

While Wallenda is a great showman and loves to thrill the crowds with his death-defying acts - he said his main mission is to point people to "the One" who holds him while he's up there on the wire.

"I choose to use what I do as an occupation, to bring glory to God's name. It is me living my life, and I think that's why there's so much respect in the mainstream media," he said.

"There was very little negativity to me saying the name of Jesus over 60 times in front of 200 countries around the world, millions of people, 20 million people in the United States alone watching that live," he said.

Wallenda said the testimonies that come from his performances motivate him to keep pushing.

"One woman said, 'I didn't walk for four years, and I saw you proclaiming the name of Jesus with a balancing pole in your hand, and I couldn't walk without a cane. So I grabbed my cane, I put it in my hands, and I started calling out the name of Jesus, and I took the first five steps I've taken in three or four years!" Wallenda recalled her saying. (Photo via CBN News)

This will be Wallenda's first time publicly walking the high-wire blind-folded. He said it will be challenging but he's not worried.

"I have peace in where I'm gonna end up if I were to lose my life. However, I have a beautiful wife and three beautiful children. I have no desire of losing my life on a wire," he admitted. "That's why I train so hard, that's why I train, knowing that I won't even step foot on that wire if the winds exceed 50 miles per hour that night."

And as you might have guessed, many are praying for unusually calm winds over Chicago on Nov. 2.

If your heart can take it, you can watch Nik Wallenda's "Skyscraper Live" Sunday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. ET on the Discovery Channel.