Falling

If you have run very much, you have fallen.  I was on a trip in Indonesia back when I still had knees and was running in the evening essentially to clear my mind from a bad day and to avoid further conflict.  On the way back I tripped on a crack in the pavement and went down hard.  I remember that fall primarily because of where it happened.  There are many more that I do not remember.

Some friends of mine ran a half marathon last weekend.  They told me that toward the middle of the race a lady in front of them went down.  She was dehydrated and her body quit.  Same thing happened to a friend of ours in the Tulsa Run a few years ago.  Less than 100 yards from the finish she collapsed and was not able to finish the race.

Falling is part of this race.  Proverbs 24:16 tells us that we have to keep getting up.  Ecclesiastes 4:9 – 10 reminds us that it is good not to be running alone.  My friends in the half marathon stopped to help the lady who fell, in the process applying well Galatians 6:1.  We will fall, fail, in this race we in which we are engaged.  So will our kids.  So will our friends who are also in the race.  When we fall we have to get up and we may need help to do that.  When our kids fall we have to encourage them to continue.  Same with our friends.  We may need to help them.

Falling is part of the race.