Sep 19, 2013

We All Fall

This past week, I spent two wonderful days at a Pastor’s Gathering dialoging around the subject of “Grace and Restoration”. This was a gathering of pastors and ministry leaders from around the country who had a heart to see the church once again be a vibrant place in the world.

One of the speakers said something amazing. He told us that when his son was learning how to skateboard, he bought him some elbow and knee pads as well as a helmet because falling was part of the process of learning how to use a skateboard. He said; similarly,  “Falling is part of the process of learning how to walk”.

I thought of how when teaching kids how to skate, we teach them as soon as they step on ice how to fall down. This way, they learn how to get up as well as learn that falling is part of the process of learning to skate.

The same is true for so many areas such as riding a bike or a horse. And each time that someone does fall, they are told to immediately get back up and try again. This is just part of the process.

So why, the speaker pondered out loud, do we not allow new Believers in Christ to go through a process of learning how to walk? Why not almost assume that they will fall and instead teach them how to get back up and keep going?

Why do we insist on telling them (or at least imply) that once a person makes a decision to follow Jesus by confessing with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in their heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, they will be saved from falling?

Why not instead tell them that Jesus will continue to work on your life and that sometime along your journey you may slip or even fall?  Why not tell them that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 10:23-24 NKJV)

In the Christian walk, we all either slip, fall, or have the possibly of doing so at some point(s) along the way so why not admit it and help the newbies to understand that it is just part of the process and that they need not be afraid or discouraged when it happens?

Or are verses such as; “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again” (Proverbs 24:16a) reserved to encourage someone who has never struggled that he should get back up?

I think that this insight would have saved me a lot of times of distancing myself from the Heavenly Father; from whom I hid myself when I sinned, even though He longed to be in relationship.

Too many moments and days and months were spent in a long distance relationship with One who gave His very life to provide a way for me to spend time with Him by demonstrating His own love toward us, in that while I was in my sin and didn't know Him, Christ died for me. (Romans 5:8)

And He did it KNOWING that I was a sinner and KNOWING that I was fallible and would push past the roadblocks that He set up top provide a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13).

All this He did KNOWING that falling was just part of the process of me learning to walk.

Because He did it for me, I want to learn how to encourage others away from discouragement of their own fallibility when they forget that falling is part of the process of learning to walk. So get back up and keep walking; we all have more places to go in Him!

 

1 comment:

  1. Dear Pastor, Very good comment! However, many of us DO realize that God loves us and is the Only One who is big enough to allow us to have do overs. It is the people and pastors in church who will not give people a second chance, nor a hand to pick oneself up; on the contrary, these very people put their proverbial foot on the neck in order to keep the wounded down. It is not God, but the people in church who is quick to speak, slow to listen, and quick to condemn. Yes, the church has fallen; but perhaps, the church should stay on the floor and humble ourselves before the Great I AM, and ask ourselves, is it I, Lord? Have I done such a thing to my brother?

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