A Forty Foot Fall
Photo by: John Macdonald
“I believed in you, so I said, ‘I am deeply troubled, Lord.’” Ps 116:10 (NLT)
It was described as a forty-story fall, actually. However, for alliteration purposes we’ve gone with “foot” instead of “story”. Although, I must say, to be saved from a fall of some forty stories does have a little more umph than my forty feet analogy. Nonetheless, we move on…
As I was on an evening stroll around the block last evening I met up with our neighbor Judy and Rusty the farm dog. We began talking of this and that as folks will d and eventually the conversation turned to the topic of faith. So at this point you can probably tell where this is going. Yep, she rightly pointed put that often times it seems as though God “shows up” when we’re about 4 inches off the floor from a forty story (foot) fall. But God’s been there all the while. Before the fall. Through the fall. At the bottom of the fall. God’s been there. With you; within you. He has been, and is, your strength.
A question that develops from this scenario is this…how are you-now-during a “fall” in your life? There are, in all of us, things the Lord was working on in you before all of this started. It is entirely possible that those issues or situations are exacerbated by the stress of the current Covid upheaval.
In different conversation with someone yesterday it was brilliantly described; our situation in life, those things we are anchored to in a negative way. For if one was dealing with anxiety, depression-both the daily & the clinical types, fear, greed, moral or ethical temptations, etc…those things are certainly effected by the way life is different now. But-the Lord is with us before the fall (again, think of this not in the “fall from grace” way of using fall), through the fall of faith from forty stories, and His hand is there beneath us to soften or skip the landing altogether.
On those occasions when I am deeply troubled and doubt may be creeping around the door of my heart, it’s entirely because of the belief (TRUST) in the Lord that I have that I’m going to lean on Him. Before, during, and after whatever the fall of faith happens to be. With much faith or what little I can muster at the time. As obvious as that may sound, we need the occasional “oh yeah” moment, amen?
My heart knows those Everlasting Arms are strong-which is exactly why I’m going to Lean on them with each new situation I face. Whether I’m approaching the edge, looking over the roof, falling, or after the landing-I’ll be leaning.
Be encouraged today brother & sister-and lean on those arms!
