He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Psalm 23: 3

Falling Down

            "I don't trip.  I do random gravity checks," read one of those tongue-in-cheek ecards people are always posting on Facebook.  "I did one of those in a restaurant in KY yesterday.  I'm happy to report that the gravity in KY checked out a-okay," I responded to my friend's post.  Sigh.  It was true.  Traveling through Kentucky on our way home from North Carolina, we'd stopped at a Frisch's Big Boy during their lunch rush, deciding to go in to order since we were all tired of sitting in the car. The weather was dismal, drizzle and snow, so my shoes were wet when I stepped on the tile floor.  Two steps and I skated, and after what I imagine were some highly entertaining acrobatics, plunged to the floor landing on my left knee.  Ow.  My husband rushed to help me up.  Our teenagers pretended not to know me.  I wished I could pretend not to know me!  I could walk just fine, but gosh, my knee hurt. 

            A week or so later, back home again in Indiana (and if you're from around here, you just heard the Indiana Beach jingle in your head), I decided to brave the cold and snow for the tenth-of-a-mile walk out to our mailbox.  A little exercise, a little fresh air and sunshine.  Yes, just the break from the house I needed. . . . until, on my way back, I stepped wrong in an icy tire track, and both feet slipped sideways out from under me as if I were some cartoon character and I fell on my side in the snow.  At least the snow was deep and soft.  I fell with a plumff instead of a thud.  Thank goodness for that.  And thank goodness that at least this time there wasn't a restaurant full of people watching.  Maybe a few deer or birds or raccoons.  I pictured them snickering. 

            But I wasn't hurt at all during that second fall.  In fact, I thought, giddy from having my brain jostled, I imagine, Gee, I haven't fallen down this much since I was kid. Hey, this means I can say that I feel like a kid again! Woohoo!  Not bad at all, considering.

But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me.  Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children."  And he placed his hand on their heads and blessed them before he left.   Matthew 19:14-15 NLT

            The thing about kids is that when they fall down, they don't stay there.  Yes, they may shed a few tears, but they hop back up and go at it again whether it's riding a bike, or climbing a tree, or just walking, if they're anything like me. That's what childlike faith is all about, not allowing ourselves to be defeated by what our circumstances seem to say is true, but looking beyond them, believing beyond them, into the eternal.  The long view.

            Perhaps you've fallen down in your walk with Christ, disappointing others and yourself.  Get back up!  Confess.  Try again.  Never give up!  In his address to a class of boys at Harrow School in war torn Britain in 1941, Winston Churchill urged, "Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''  Good advice for those schoolboys facing the Blitzkrieg, and good advice for those of us facing down our own enemies, the worst of which is sometimes ourselves.  But best of all, good advice to those of us who long to be like those children to whom the Kingdom of Heaven belongs. 

            Think how much love, how much warmth and acceptance those children must have felt from His words, His hand resting on their heads. . . .

Daye Phillippo

February 2014