Falling to Walk

When was the last time you totally wiped out while you were walking somewhere? Don’t kid yourself, you know it has happened, probably this month, maybe even this week. You were walking down the hall or the sidewalk or in the yard and you completely biffed it. Ate the dust. Punished the ground. As much as it hurts to fall physically, it hurts even more to become aware of the fact that you have been walking for decades and still have not mastered it. The emotional pain of tripping outweighs the physical pain many times. Your friends all laughed….and THEN offered to help you up…maybe…or they just kept laughing. They caught it on video and now you’re an internet sensation.

 The point is, we were all taught to walk at some point in our lives. When our parents were teaching us to walk, it was a grueling process. We fell. And we fell. And we fell again. And we cried. And every time they helped us up, wiped away our tears, and set us back on our feet. They let us hold their hand and when they thought we were ready, they let go. The glory and splendor of successfully taking those 3 steps prior to the next wipe out made the next try worth it.

Our walk with God is the same way. We have to learn how to do it and we have to be taught how by our Father. It is a grueling process. We will fall and fall and fall again. We will weep and cry. And every time God will be there to pick us up, wipe away our tears, and set us back on our feet. He holds our hand until we have regained our confidence and strength and then he lets us go.

The key is the letting go. He wants us to learn to walk on our own without him doing it for us. He loves us enough to let us fall and he loves us enough to pick us up every single time. If he never allowed us to fall, we would never learn to walk.