We all fall down...

So, Ryan Haack spoke on Sunday night and it was simply breathtaking. I'm not sure if that is how you spell breathtaking...breath taking? Regardless, the message was second to none. It was about being humble...

No really, I spoke about what knocks us off of the course God has us on. Like Sam (my one year old son), even though we know how to walk with God, we still fall down a lot. Why is that? Well, in Sam's case, he falls down when he 1)gets too excited, 2)gets bored, or 3)stuff gets in the way. See any parallels?

Sometimes we get too excited. Let's say you decide to go backpacking through some mountains in Canada. They're big and fun. You think that having a guide would make your journey safer and more efficient, so you hire one. "Hello, my name is Greg LeMond and I'll be your guide. Just follow me and everything will be fantastic." Then *POOF* off you go, tearing ahead and into the mountains, leaving poor Greg LeMond in your dust. Don't we do that with God? He says, "Follow Me. Let Me guide you." Then we get all excited and just start running as fast as we can. What if we WAITED on Him and were PATIENT so we actually went where He wanted us to? What a world of difference that would make.

And what about getting bored? That can throw us off, too, right? Boooooring.

Stuff always seems to get in our way, too. Sam has an interesting way of dealing with this. He ignores it and tries to walk directly through it. Even if it is a pillow twice his size, he's going. We do this, too, I think. What if we actually looked ahead and tried to prevent preventable falls? What if we saw a distraction and *GASP* we tried to avoid it? I think ignoring situations and circumstances that can distract us from Christ is dangerous. We need to acknowledge them, assess the damage, and deal with them.

That said, some falls are necessary. If, for instance, in our overexcitement (is that a word?) we've run SO FAR off the path God wants us to be on that we can't even see it anymore...perhaps he'll throw a stick in front of us as we're rollerskating by, blissfully unaware of where we are so that SMACK, we're face first on the ground wondering why and where the heck we are. It's then that God can bring us back to where we should be.

So, with any understanding that some falls are necessary but that most of them are preventable, what can we do about it? How do we differenciate between a necessary fall and one that could have been prevented? What can we do on a daily basis that will help us stay on the right path, undeterred? When I get too excited, how to I harness it so I make sure I'm expending my energy in the right direction? When I'm bored with life, how do I get enthused? When stuff gets in the way...how do I deal with it?

Now...talk. Tells us what you think about it. Click on the "comments" link and have at it. Please behave, though, so I don't have to get all administrative on you.

Peace
Haack