Falling, Falling, Falling.  I’ve been watching the Olympics the last few days, and that describes a lot of what I have been seeing.  First the snow boarders, falling some 22 feet to the bottom of the half pipe. Then figure skaters, who for some reason were having trouble staying up on two thin blades atop a sheet of ice.  Then a few skiers held to the same fate, discovering that skis like pointing a certain direction-together.  And then, lastly, this morning, a ski jumper who manged not to land completely upright, but though they had fallen, manged to get back up again.

A lot of falling down in just a few days.  For all of those who had fallen, there were many who had not, who had triumphed over the challenge and for each challenge one was awarded the best prize-Gold.  As usual, with many things, it made me think.  Wow, that was a lot of falling down for nothing.  All those athletes who had prepared, who trained, and who in the end fell and didn’t win a prize.  Yikes.  Everyone always asks them “what did you think after you fell”.  I wonder-what were they thinking in those moments when they were in the midst of falling and they could do nothing to stop it.  When they were powerless to stop the forces of gravity and they knew all that training would not get them the prize.

I wonder what we think when we are falling, not when we have completely fallen, but when we are being trapped, in the process of the falling.  Do we ever think to ourselves “I am running a race worthy of my Lord, to win a prize greater then even gold, and I am powerless to stop it”.  For it is true we are in a race, and the prize is worth more then even gold, but it is not true that we are powerless to stop it.  We are given more then we need to stop even the most powerful schemes the enemy might attack us with.  We are given the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, which we can use to stop ourselves in the midst of any fall.  It isn’t gravity pulling us down!  If we ever think when we are falling that we simply can’t do anything about it, we are wrong.

What happens when we don’t stop it, and we do fall?  Then what, are we without a prize?  Like the Olympic athlete, are we left out even though we have trained, we have started the race, and we have run?  No-for we will get up again.  The Lord has promised that He will lift up all those who fall! “The LORD upholds all those who fall, and lifts up all who are bowed down.” Psalm 145:14 Did you see the one requirement on our part–to be bowed down.  We must bow down to Him and He will forgive us, lifting us up. We will once again be running, running, running, forgiven.

Falling is not unstoppable, and having fallen does not cause us to lose our prize.  God’s word prevents falling from becoming gravity, and when we do fall, bowing down gets us back up and running again, forgiven.  The prize is ours, its just a matter of what position you are in when you receive it, me I want to be running when I receive it.  So I will keep using God’s word as my sword, and continue to bow down when I do fall, relying on the Lord to lift me up.

1 Comment

1. 

   Great analogy!

   Comment by Lisa Mongold — March 1, 2010 @ 1:16 pm

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