When I was about twelve, I had a bad fall incident.
It was a Minnesota winter- one of THOSE winters! I was running late for the
school bus, so late that I built up enough speed to not only fall on the ice, but SLIDE partly under the bus as well! Beautiful! And
oh, so safe and dignifying! Because there’s nothing preteen girls love more
than an audience witnessing your moment of impact with nature’s ice rink!
Anyhoo, my point is this: embarrassing falls happen. They can be the literal fall of, for instance, missing a step or curb or slipping on a patch of ice. Or they can be spiritual or emotional falls, in which something horrible happened that devastated you, like a severed relationship, a communication mishap, or feeling isolated and estranged because of circumstances that were out of your control.
And then, there’s the fall of “relapse.” Nothing can make a person feel more like a worthless failure than relapse. You feel defeated, hopeless, weak, a failure. You somehow reason that you’re the one lone person in the world who failed and can’t sustain recovery. “Everyone else” has got it down; if you were a “better person,” you scream to yourself, you could get it too.
But we all fall:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 3:23
The fact is, yes, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo embarrassing when I fell at 12…and 13… and 19… and 23… and 27…and, well, you get the picture… I’ve slid under a lot of life buses in my time, had sooooooo many failures, with plenty of onlookers watching.
But life went on; the moment- hellish, embarrassing , defeating- PASSED!
Again, 2 Corinthians 4:18:
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.”
I fell at twelve, was embarrassed, struggled to get up, got up, got on the bus, etc.
And with each fall, each year, whether I felt it was happening or not, I still got up because God was helping me.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalms 46:1
God’s helping you too. So, what’s your latest fall? Are you struggling to get up?
Still feel pathetic? Well, how ‘bout this?
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again...”
Proverbs 24:16
God’s not mad at you; He’s helping you to get up from your fallen place.
Anyhoo, my point is this: embarrassing falls happen. They can be the literal fall of, for instance, missing a step or curb or slipping on a patch of ice. Or they can be spiritual or emotional falls, in which something horrible happened that devastated you, like a severed relationship, a communication mishap, or feeling isolated and estranged because of circumstances that were out of your control.
And then, there’s the fall of “relapse.” Nothing can make a person feel more like a worthless failure than relapse. You feel defeated, hopeless, weak, a failure. You somehow reason that you’re the one lone person in the world who failed and can’t sustain recovery. “Everyone else” has got it down; if you were a “better person,” you scream to yourself, you could get it too.
But we all fall:
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 3:23
The fact is, yes, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo embarrassing when I fell at 12…and 13… and 19… and 23… and 27…and, well, you get the picture… I’ve slid under a lot of life buses in my time, had sooooooo many failures, with plenty of onlookers watching.
But life went on; the moment- hellish, embarrassing , defeating- PASSED!
Again, 2 Corinthians 4:18:
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.”
I fell at twelve, was embarrassed, struggled to get up, got up, got on the bus, etc.
And with each fall, each year, whether I felt it was happening or not, I still got up because God was helping me.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalms 46:1
God’s helping you too. So, what’s your latest fall? Are you struggling to get up?
Still feel pathetic? Well, how ‘bout this?
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again...”
Proverbs 24:16
God’s not mad at you; He’s helping you to get up from your fallen place.
Don’t stay where you fell; that is not your destiny! Your life, complete with an incredible future, is your destiny!
“…Behold,
I make all things new...”
Revelation 21:5
So, we may be at our usual rut state
of mind kind of living. Some of us out there may be struggling through
repetitious, frustrating days. Some of us may be trying to recover from a
personal setback, a slip from sobriety, or a major life change which completely
caught us off guard. What do we do when a slip or a fall has disrupted our
lives, especially when some of us feel far from spring chickens? What’s the
antidote to the fall? Answer: God’s new.
Think about it. No matter how old we
get, there’s a large part of us which wants to feel new, shiny, like a possibility-
filled being. Yet, so much of the time in life, it seems our lives and
realities don’t reflect that shiny newness. Is new too simple, too unrealistic
to hope for after you’ve been battered by life a bit? No. I don’t think so.
However, I think there’s a trick to it a perspective. Perhaps we could stop
seeing new as a one time, instant, perfect event and start seeing it as a
constant process from a relevant God, Who subtly changes and yes, transforms
things. Nothing in life just happens- or even happens overnight. Life takes
time. Even concerning a seemingly instant event took some to get that way. And
regardless of how things seem, God is still in control.
So, could God be up to something new?
God has plan for us, according to Jeremiah
29:11:
“For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Did you catch that? God knows the
thoughts and plans for us; we don’t. So, why should we ever assume it’s “over”
for us, in any way? You and I are both still here, right? God doesn’t write us
off; why should we?
There is a new future, even when we
don’t feel it, see it or know it for our lives. It’s not hopeless. It’s never
hopeless.
God is doing a new thing for you.
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall
ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:19
But don’t get caught up on the old
things of your life.
Where is your focus: the past, the
present or the future? They all play a role, but don’t negate the rest of your
life, just because of something from the past. God is a God of restoration,
healing and new beginnings…
“He
sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
Psalms 107:20
“For I will restore health unto thee, and I
will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an
Outcast...”
Jeremiah 30:17
“I will restore to you the years
that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar and the palmer
worm…"
Joel 2:25
And that includes falls. New is still
the promise, still extended to you.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
A bad fall never disqualifies you. Allow God to be in it. Remember:
“For a just man falleth seven
times, and riseth up again...”
Proverbs 24:16
Proverbs 24:16
Copyright © 2015 by Sheryle Cruse
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