Falling Down

So, last Saturday morning, not even an hour after finishing my blog post, my whole day changed. I was getting ready for a great day away with friends and was hurrying to get ready. It had turned a bit cooler and I wanted a sweater that was stored downstairs. I started be-bopping down the stairs like I normally do and my foot came out from under me. I fell for what felt like forever; and the more I think about it, the more I realized, I was sitting where my feet were, so I really didn't fall down the stairs. I hit my head in the process though and the gash I had was deep. There was no way around the fact that my plans just changed. I was crushed.


This didn't get lost on me though, I knew there was a lesson in it, there were many lessons in it.  Of course, as soon as I told what happened, I was met with several comments, those that know me the best wanted to know if it would slow me down, or maybe knock some sense into me. Well, as far as going down the stairs, I will have to tell you, yes, I have slowed down and been more careful. The knocking some sense into me? That's is probably still up for debate?


I do think about the fact that as Christians, we seem to get ahead of God sometimes though, and sometimes, He will try everything He can to get us to do things His way without causing us a major event, like a fall. He gave us free will though, and that makes it hard--on both of us. I know it surely pains God when He knows what we should be doing, He TELLS us what we should be doing, and we don't listen. I often think of Luke 11: 11-12.


¹¹ If a son asks for bread^[d] from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”


And though this passage talks about asking God for what we want, I think the thing is, God has a greater life for us than we can even imagine. He already KNOWS our life here on earth, every second of it, We get so busy doing our thing that sometimes He has to just stop us in our tracks, and say, LISTEN TO ME!!! I wonder how awesome my life would really be, if I had done what He had led me to every time He lead me there.


So, when I fell down the stairs; , as badly as I wanted to be in Bloomington, I spent the morning in the ER and the afternoon taking 45 minute naps on the couch. I was instructed by the doctors to rest. I doubt if the doctor knew how badly I needed that rest, but obviously, God did.


And that is not the ONLY lesson I learned from my fall. The two I was supposed to be spending my day with, Dani and Tammy, texted me throughout the day. Last Saturday was Tammy's birthday, we are all officially 50 now. So, in the course of the day, Dani sends a picture of a life alert necklace. Yeah, uh, no. She told me she wasn't slamming me, but she had fell recently too. But here's the deal. We were all able to get back up. That's the important thing. GET BACK UP.


Somebody said something about getting old this week, I am not convinced I am going to do it. My mom turns 78 in 11 days, and I do not think she sees herself as old, the older I get, the more I get it. My mom can outwork me any day of the week, so I truly believe old is a state of mind, and I am not going to get there easily. If nothing else, thinking about this has inspired me to once again, try harder to take care of myself. So that I can keep getting up when I fall.


I knew this was in the Bible, but the events of the week caused me to look it up.


For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity. Proverbs 24:16.


We aren't perfect, NONE OF US, if even one of us were perfect, Christ's death would have been in vain. He was the perfect one.


But what I am getting at, is don't ever beat yourself up for falling, we all do it; the Bible says we are going to do it. But it also says we will Rise again. I kinda like that, Rising feels so much more a big deal than just getting back up. :-) So, whatever your latest fall has been, walking into a temptation you didn't plan to (mine the last two days has been eating, I had been doing so good. :( ) or not giving something your all, or simply not listening to what HE wants you to do. You can rise again. He wants you too, He will help you.


Today is the day......


These last couple of paragraph's has Danny Gokey's Rise going through my head, so I am almost positive I have used it here before, but someone someplace needs it today. It may just be me, or it may be you.


I am asking for a very special prayer request, and I am sorry I can't tell you any specifics, but if you would just pray that God's will be done in the situation Mindy is talking about, I know God knows. I have a friend who needs lots of prayer right now, and may not have a tremendous amount of praying friends, but I do. I wanted to help and didn't know exactly how. God told me to ask this, so I am asking. If you could just put this little unspoken prayer request on your daily list for a while, I will let you know when we have an answer Thanks in advance!!!