Falling Down

I fell down the other day. I mean I REALLY fell down. The kind of “fall-right-on-your-face-in-public-falling-down” that you cannot dissimulate no matter how hard you try.

I was on the way to the airport to pick up one of my co-workers when I decided to stop at a store and pick up a Diet Coke. I stepped out of the car and took two steps when I suddenly found myself falling in the general direction of concrete and tarmac. It seems that I had put my foot on a piece of rebar in the dark which had sliced into my shoe. When I tried to take a step forward I ended up tripping and falling onto the top of a cement retaining wall - with my chest taking most of the damage in the collision.

A store employee and security guard came running up to help me. It was obvious from their expressions and words they thought they had just witnessed a spectacular senior moment. I hate it when younger people treat me like I am old enough to be a member of the AARP.

Hold on a sec – I AM old enough to be a member of AARP! However, I still hate it when they treat me like I am.

It is not the first time that I have managed to impress people with my ability to fall down this year. Back in March I fell face to the floor in front of several IT missionaries when I misjudged the number of steps through my bifocals. Nothing like a disastrous fall to humble you in front of your co-workers. Nothing like kissing the floor hard to make you wish you didn’t have to wear bifocals.

Mary Pickford, the star of silent movies, said, “Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “Failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

Comforting words for someone like myself who is apparently making a second career out of spectacular public pratfalls.

I find some level of encouragement in the fact that we all fall down. We all fail. That is one of the greatest truths of Christianity – we have all fallen very far from where we were meant to be, but He has helped us stand up once again. A God of mercy has reached down to rescue participants in His fallen creation.

Ironically, according to the Scriptures one of the best responses we can have to grace like that is to fall down (once again) in worship before Him (Rev. 4:10). Apparently it is easier to fall than stand in front of such a great and holy God. I look forward to that moment of falling down, don’t you?