Fear of Falling

Sometimes in life you feel like a child racing down a snow-encrusted hill on the thin rails of one of those old wood and metal sleds. Remember them? Man, could we fly. When the snow was packed hard and the temperature was in the teens, those metal sleds were like white lightning. The freedom, the effortless exhilaration, the snow-in-the-face, frozen-smiled ecstasy. There was nothing like it.

And then, sometimes, life is like scaling a rock face in 100+ degree heat, in the middle of the desert. Muscles cramp, your tongue glues itself to the roof of your mouth, fingers ache. Fear takes an iron-gripped hold on your heart. And just as you think you can’t hold on any longer and you can’t find your next foothold, you look down and it suddenly hits you, falling is not a good idea. You question how in the world you got yourself into this predicament and how in the world you’re going to get yourself out.

Then it happens, the fingers slip, the foot looses its grip, your heart shoots up and lodges somewhere in your throat as you claw at the rock face. Every muscle screams and tightens but it’s too late, the rock has rejected you. You fall.

But you only fall a few feet before your harness comes to life around your waist and jerks you to a sudden stop.

I like the New Century Version of Jude 24: God is strong and can help you not to fall.

Even when life is at its toughest and we’re losing grip and falling seems inevitable, God is there, ready to hold us up and keep us from falling.

God is strong.