The Fall

Well, I had a “rude awakening” this past week, literally! I fell out of bed… There I was sound asleep, dreaming I was climbing a ladder and my feet slipped and … well, I fell out of bed and landed on my chest, cracking a rib. It has been rather painful this week. There is nothing they can do for it a doctor friend told me, just take it easy. However in my present job, that is easier said than done. This too shall pass however and life will continue.

I was reminded of a story I heard years ago about a little boy who fell out of bed. His parents rushed in to quiet the crying boy and said, “What happened to you?” to which the boy replied, “I guess I just was sleeping too close to where I got in.” Of course my mind jumps to the spiritual application for you and me.

In my years of ministry I have seen so many people start a new relationship with God and not long after they “fall” away or forget all of the promises they made to God. The problem is that they never moved from the edge of the relationship to a better and deeper understanding and relationship to our God. They might start their relationship with great enthusiasm and then they begin to feel that it just isn’t working for them or they really don’t feel any different. They think, when you become a Christian, aren’t you suppose to feel more holy, more spiritual, isn’t this suppose to help you overcome the problems in your life?

The problem as I have seen it is that far too often these folks have stayed right on the edge of the relationship and never delved deeper and grown in the spirit themselves.

These are much like the folks spoken of in the book of Hebrews, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”.  (Hebrews 5:11-14) NLT

Humm… training yourself by a constant use of the word of God… What an idea! You see that’s what it means to go deeper, to no longer stay on the edge so that you might “fall” out of the relationship.

Be careful about staying too close to the edge… you might end up with more than a cracked rib; you might loose your soul.