Falling

Joining Bonnie over at Faith Barista today....

I have passed by the sign all week.  Fall down 7 times get back up 8.  I am finding that this journey is more about the getting up.  Perhaps in Him asking me to give grace in the hardest of places, He has taught me to receive it in the most difficult way...for myself.  Perhaps we learn about forgiveness and not holding on because eventually the time comes where we have to be able to forgive ourselves.  And if we haven't learned to extend it to others, then I am quite sure, that stick we have sitting in the corner to measure our own faults and failures looms large.

In hiding our own shame, we put on masks and try to pretend like we are just fine, so no one will see and everyone will believe that we are good enough, when in truth, the One who already sees our shame is the only One Who can give us the freedom we so desperately look for.  When we learn to run to Him first, refusing to hide our sin and our failures, the shame that so easily sticks to us becomes nothing more than a catalyst. Right into the arms of the One Who will use it to heal us in places long broken.

Falling is inevitable.  It's not if, but when.  The grace is in the getting up.  The healing is in letting Him attend our wounds and show us the stumbling blocks that caused our crash.  When you look at it, acknowledge it and face it, shame, fear and unforgiveness have lost their power.  It doesn't mean we won't have the emotions that come along with them, it means that there is something deeper in spite of them, telling us who we are, Whose we are.  We belong to the One waiting to help us get back on our feet.  Thankful.