Just the basics

You are just walking along, oblivious to the world, and then all of a sudden, you find yourself sprawling forward, lunging out of control and looking like a complete fool as down to ground you go!  When you attempt to reconstruct the event, you simply cannot see the "reason" you fell.  In essence, you accept the excuse of having tripped over your own feet. I have been mortified by some of my falls. I wonder if this is how we all face our spiritual and emotional "falls"?  We find ourselves just kind of oblivious to the events of the moment, then almost without notice, we find ourselves face down, sprawled in some pretty hard places, and mortified!  Shame enters in and all we want to to is "duck and cover".  What is often missing in those moments is the helping hand of a friend!  In fact, we often fall because we don't have the right balance of accountability friendships in our lives!

My question: What are God-worshipers like?  Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bull’s-eye.  They settle down in a promising place; their kids inherit a prosperous farm.  God-friendship is for God-worshipers; they are the ones he confides in.  If I keep my eyes on God, I won’t trip over my own feet.  (Psalm 25:12-15)

If you sometimes don't feel like an arrow aimed at God's bull's-eye, I totally understand!  There are definitely moments, sometimes days, when I just feel like I cannot get on track and I see myself wasting opportunities, drifting without a paddle, and kind of lost in the motions. Who's going to be in your circle of influence today - there to help when you fall?  If you are wise, you will include at least one person in whom you can confide, find wise counsel, and who will be there for you when you are sprawling out of control.  Yep, we want to get close to God in this new year, but we also need those who will challenge us to be closer to God, to not settle into the warmth of the low places, and to refuse to give into the shame of our falls.

What God has in mind when he gives us good friends who walk along with us in this journey of faith might just be that we need others to help us see where adjustments are most needed in our lives. They help us see when our stand is wrong so we are u stable, our aim is amiss because of how we are holding onto things incorrectly, and what to do to correct it before it causes us so much pain we abandon it all together! When you have this kind of companionship in life, you might just stop doing the things which cause so much pain, focus on the elemental stuff, and just consistently do as we are being taught. Perhaps then we will the mark every time.  It isn't the "mastery" we need to focus on, it is the "basics" and the basics are best learned together!  Just sayin!