“For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again” —Proverbs 24:16
Falling. I hate it. Whether you trip yourself up or something else pushes you down, every man, woman, and child knows what it is like to fall…and it sucks. Sometimes we fall and scrape our knees or bruise our egos, then there are other times when a fall can break bones and crush our soul. This scripture from Proverbs doesn’t differentiate between the two, fortunately for us; but it does promise that the righteous will rise from it again and again and again.
In his last movie, “Rocky Balboa,” we find a wiser, more circumspect Rocky. In it he has a conversation with his grown son about the hardships of life:
“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.”
It’s as true a statement as I’ve ever heard. We live on Earth, a fallen world, and bad stuff happens here–stuff you don’t deserve, stuff that’s been designed to beat you down and kill you, stuff God never meant to happen. Yet as human beings we have to deal with it. In the end it doesn’t matter how we fell, what matters is how we respond to it. WE have to decide to get up. WE have to decide to move forward. WE have to make that choice every day. And it is GOD who gives us the grace and empowerment to do this.
God has our backs. He hasn’t left us alone to find our own way to get back up. When we give our lives to Him it is He who upholds us.
“The steps of a man are established by the Lord, And He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” —Psalms 37:23-24
Like a Father holding a child’s hand, God holds our hand and when we fall He keeps us from being destroyed. Grab His hand tightly and if you fall, decide to get back up and keep going on and let Him help you on your way. And expect the future to be better.
(originally published 3/26/13)