There's one very comforting thing in life: we always have a safety net. No matter how bad we screw up, God will be there to catch us before we plummet to the ground. Sure, the fall will probably scare the crud out of you, and the landing may not be a soft one, but we'll survive to learn from our mistakes.
But, as Shakespeare once wrote, "Ay, there's the rub!" The key is that we need — I stress "need" here — to look for the lesson in our failures. There's an old adage in Christianity that "God helps those who help themselves." The idea is two-pronged: the most common translation of that phrase is that God will only give assistance to those who don't sit back and expect God to do everything, like pay the bills. But the more obscure meaning of the phrase is that God will continue to catch only those who stop making a mistake they know they're making. It's not because he's given up on you; it's just that he's giving you the lesson the hard way. And while you may fall to the bottom, know that the bottom of God's love is infinitely greater than the top of the world.
Three years old and his father asks him
To take a leap of faith
From the safety of the dock
Into the dark, cold lake
Standing with his arms stretched out
The child looks so small
Scared to death he whispers
"Daddy catch me when I fall"
Seventeen and he's been pushed
To drinking by his friends
At a party one night he's caught
With a beer in his hands
At the station the sheriff says
"Boy, you've got one call"
He dials home and whispers
"Dad, catch me when I fall"
Thirty-five, on the streets
Begging for a meal
No more wife, no more kids
His pain is oh, so real
He bet on booze and his cheating ways
Now he's lost it all
Tears stream down as he prays
"Father, catch me when I fall"
A child-like faith in the one
Who finds him when he's lost
As a kid he looked to daddy's arms
He now looks to the cross
Knowing those same outstretched hands
He jumped into long ago
Will catch him when he falls
And they won't let him go
When I face uncertainty
When I need some help
I remember Him who caught me
Every time I fell
I've never faced the world alone
Any time I can recall
I walk beside the one I know
Will catch me when I fall
– When I Fall, ©2001 Mike Frazer
October 29th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Something that I keep on my mind during times like this: “The teacher is silent when the student takes the test.” The journey continues: He isn’t going to tell you how to walk it but He’s going to walk with you, through it, He’ll help you when you ask for it and the bottom line is He loves you.