I'd like to believe my wife and I and many of our friends are completely sold-out to the idea of being and making disciples of Jesus Christ. Disciple-making, then, would begin in our own home and by the power of the Holy Spirit continually pouring out of us in every way, in every waking moment of every day. Disciple-making is an intentional process, one in which we might find ourselves seeing continuous opportunities to teach, learn and lead the things of a life in Christ Jesus. I believe we had an opportunity like this just a couple of days ago.
My church's children's ministry hosted a family skating night. My children were so very excited (and, if you know them, imagine their normal excitement multiplied about ten times. They were amped!). During the last couple of minutes of the drive on the way to the rink...it happened...one of those moments when something is said that makes this disciple-maker say "Ooooohhh, That's like the life of a Christ-Follower!"
My wife turned off the radio (which in our car usually demands silence...musical family) and the three of us sat quietly...for a second. :-) She began speaking and said words like these: "Kids, you need to know, you are going to put on your skates. You are going to fall. It is going to hurt when you fall. You are going to get up, and you are going to keep skating."
My wife's description of the events to come was not optional. It was more of a command & promise kind of deal. Have you ever noticed that oftentimes, when people talk about the promises of Scripture, they sometimes fail to mention that some promises, at least in parts, are not ones that might make you happy? [Like, "In this world you WILL have trouble..." or all of Proverbs' promises for wicked or foolish behavior.] My dear wife, knowing our children and their skating ability called out promises and commands. The greatest commandment in her statement, in my opinion, was the one to Keep Skating!
"The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked."
Proverbs 24:16 (NLT)
All human beings, at least some time(s) in their lives, fall. The fall - just like in skating - may or may not be (your) fault! Life can sometimes feel like you were "minding your own business" when someone or something just plows right into you!
Falling Hurts! The Godly can and must, through the power of the Holy Spirit that is in them, get up again. Falling, I hate to say, is a great judge of one's faith. It is difficult to fake people out or put on a show regarding our faith when we fall. Falling hurts. Badly. When we fall, will we rise again, or will we be completely overthrown into calamity? Are we really Godly or are we not?
I believe life is hard. Sometimes, because of what I get to experience in my own life and in those with and to whom I minister, it seems there are more bad moments & days than good ones. How then is it possible to still enjoy life?
Answer: God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) within the Christ-follower allows us to get up...and keep skating.
I believe God (and my wife) would advise us today, "Keep Skating."
How are you today? Where are you with faith in Jesus Christ? Have you fallen (even if the fall was of no fault of your own)? Does/did it hurt? How do you plan to "Keep Skating?"
3 comments:
Whew! True story, AJ. Just last night I had a rough, rough, ROUGH night at work and the entire night felt like a never ending downward spiral. Then today, I had to make a decision about accepting a position at a different hospital. I declined the position in part because it really wasn't a great fit and also because I didn't want to leave my current position with the thought that I didn't get back up and keep trying. Thanks for the post; it was perfectly timed for me to read and offered some much needed peace and encouragement. :)
Love when that happens, we were doing our "dinner game" last night and it was a senario question - "if you scratched someones car in a parking lot, what would you do?" My kids, so well raised, all knew the "right" answer. Thankfully, God inspired me to ask if any of them had ever done something wrong and not told the person and tried to act like it never happened. We went on to have a wonderful conversation about the role of the Holy Spirit in the believers life.
Hello, AJ!
I must apologise for having to contact you this way, but I had no idea where else I could contant you.
Your URL on tumblr (spitfire) is one I have been wanting for a long time, but I saw it was taken by a very inactive blog!
Do you mind deleting your tumblr, or changing your URL to leave the spitfire URL open for me?
Thanks, AJ.
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