Stumbling Toward Ruin?

I am a survivor. Have you heard those words, or seen them proudly worn across the front of a t-shirt announcing some event the wearer has endured and survived? A survivor is one who has 'beaten the odds', coming out on the other side of something they had a hard time enduring. If God is the one who fights with us, helping us with our 'survival skills' in the midst of whatever it is we have been called to endure, then we can be assured that we will come out on the other side. Will we have 'war wounds' of some sort? Probably. We aren't guaranteed to be 'wound free', but we are promised to be 'held together' and 'put perfectly together' in the presence of Jesus.

For people who are stumbling toward ruin, the message of the cross is nothing but a tall tale for fools by a fool. But for those of us who are already experiencing the reality of being rescued and made right, it is nothing short of God’s power. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

There are a great many of us that can proclaim we have been 'redeemed' - made new through the power and grace of God in our lives. We have undergone a process of transforming our hardened hearts into something that resembles and gives back a little bit of the grace we have received. Our 'survival' wasn't our own doing - we played a part in getting into the mess we were in, but the way out of that mess wasn't in our hands alone! God took us to the place where we'd recognize that thing we were struggling to survive within our own power was really going to be our undoing if we continued in that course. In time, we called out for help and acknowledged how foolish it was to attempt to continue in our own self efforts.

There are still others who are aimlessly attempting to 'survive' life. They feel like they have been dealt a bad hand and just have to play the cards they have been handed. They would like to fold and walk away, but they know they can't. Their life is hard - it isn't joy-filled, or even exciting - it is just  one tough day after another. They cannot hold their heads up because the weight upon them is so heavy they are just weighed down. If this is you today, I have a little hope for you - God's forgiveness is what awaits you at the end of that tough road. It isn't far off - it is as close as your lips. It only takes your acknowledging you aren't doing things well - that you need him to step in and change your course.

Look at what the course of the 'challenged'. It is a place of stumbling. There is but one person who can keep us from stumbling - Christ Jesus. We don't avoid everything we could stumble upon in life in our own efforts. That attitude of despair will creep up unless God keeps our heart at peace. The frustration of things continually going in the opposite direction as we would have desired will bring repeated pain until God adjusts our focus to see each frustration through his eyes. He 'frames' those things in a manner that helps us see how those 'frustrating things' are acting to refine us - they are like sandpaper that brings out the beauty of the grain deep within the wood.

Instead of continuing to stumble toward ruin, perhaps it is time to just halt in our path and ask God to turn us toward the place of our victory - to the place in him where will overcome our frustration, set aside our fears, relinquish the need to be constantly controlled by our circumstances. God isn't going to force himself into our 'battle', but he stands ready to help us to become more than just 'survivors' through is power, peace, and presence. We choose to stumble on, or walk strong in him. Just sayin!

Walk, fall, walk again...just move the rock!

Toby Mac is a Christian artist, but he also has some pretty profound posts which appear periodically on my Facebook feed. This weekend one came across I'd like to share: "Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." I once heard it said a stepping stone is a great thing until it becomes the thing we stumble over. Someone once told me it is pretty doggone hard to actually fall down until you are willing to get up. In other words, you cannot just sit there and actually get anywhere - sometimes it takes a few stumbles, downright falls, and a hand to help you up to get you to the next destination in life!

Two are better than one because a good return comes when two work together.  If one of them falls, the other can help him up. But who will help the pitiful person who falls down alone?  In the same way, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm. But how will the one who sleeps alone stay warm against the night?  And if one person is vulnerable to attack, two can drive the attacker away. As the saying goes, “A rope made of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 VOICE)

Falling alone is not an option!  Not even walking at all is also not an option!  We have been given all things in this life which will help us "walk well", we just have a few stumbling blocks to get past on occasion - sometimes we do this pretty well, other times we need a helping hand to pick us up when we fall.  If there is one thing I know for sure it is the fact NONE of us is without stumbling in our lives!  What?  You say you don't stumble?  Well, let me just point out some of us may have learned to do it a little more "gracefully" than others, but we still stumble!

You've probably heard that quip, "what doesn't kill us will make us strong", but I think sometimes the things we stumble over which leave us "wounded" or "hurt" are more damaging than the things which come against us to all out kill us!  We get battered and bruised with each stumble - emotionally, spiritually, in relationships.  These hurts just get bandaged up, or even ignored.  There are even times when we just leave them "open to air", allowing those wounds to fester and get their "nastiness" onto others around us.  Either way, they don't get the attention they need and the hurt just keeps on hurting.

Have you ever smacked your shin bone a good one on something just the right height to collide with it?  Yep, you read that one right - I said the object was the one who collided with you, not the other way around.  I think this is how we view stumbling blocks sometimes - as rising up in our path, just to give us grief and misery in our lives.  The issue isn't their presence, it is our inattention to avoiding them! The object we smack our shin upon didn't just rise up from the earth one day as we were walking past.  It was the coffee table in the middle of the room for the past ten years!

There are things we stumble over in life which have been in the center of our lives for so long, we just grow accustomed to them until one day they become the thing we stumble over. We are left with hurt after colliding with what had for so long been ignored!  Then we wonder why it hurt us!  Truth is, if we hadn't of ignored the presence of the thing we stumbled on for so long, it may not have been there for us to stumble on it in the first place.  This may be just the reason we need others in our lives - to help us recognize the things which can make us stumble in life - the things we have grown so comfortable with just "tolerating" in our path.

As I assess the safety of a person's home after they may have taken a fall and hurt themselves, I look for objects upon which they might stumble and fall.  Throw rugs are removed, coffee tables are out of the question, and poorly fitting shoes are simply not tolerated.  Why?  They are all obvious reasons for someone to stumble or get hurt. Removing obstacles is only one way of avoiding hurt, but it isn't the only way.  I also remind the person to use good judgment - put on the lights, use their cane, get a portable phone which can stay with them when they move around the house, etc.  What am I doing?  I am preparing them for success - not by telling them to stay confined to their bed so they don't fall again, but by helping them learn to walk within the boundaries of safety!

Many of us lack the closeness of anyone who can speak into our lives so we stop stumbling over the same obstacles in our path time and time again.  We haven't been close enough to anyone, or genuine enough with them to actually allow them to help us when we stumble.  We are missing out when we live in such a way.  To stumble is one thing - to stay down is another.  To walk alone is quite another.  Just sayin!