GET BACK ON THAT HORSE! Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do when we fall off? Name your area…overeating, gossip, complaining, slacking off church, drug and alcohol addiction, anger issues, remaining in a funk, refusing to forgive others…or even ourselves! The list could go on forever! Scripture says, and it’s true, that we have ALL SINNED and fallen short of the glory of God. And if we are truthful, this is often a daily battle.
I want to confess something to you, something that may not mean anything to you, but it does to me because I’m taking a chance to bare my soul to you to even share it. I was uncharacteristically faithful to a very strict, uninventive eating plan for eight weeks during Lent. Sensing that variety (I am an absolute foodie, no doubt about it.) had become a pseudo-idol to me, I tackled giving up not one but quite a lot of various things just to return eating to its “fuel only” mentality. I did REALLY WELL, by God’s grace, until Spring Break, and then, as my late elderly neighbor used to say, “It just went kerflooey!” The end-of-the-year school stress, and retirement parties (finger food heaven!) followed Easter, and then back-to-back vacations sealed the deal. All of a sudden, I do not look the way I did prior to April!
Yes, I still exercise, and I walked tonight. But exercise alone is not going to cut it. As much as I love food, I owe God a whole lot more, because the commitment to get healthy is one I made to Him. The fringe benefits of a longer life of love and service on His behalf…of being around long enough to see my children marry and have children of their own…to travel and adventure with Mike in the empty nest years…to share my life with you and with others He brings into my life…or even more selfishly, to be able to actually enjoy clothes shopping…are worth hanging on…and getting back on the horse. QUITTING is not an option for me, and it should not be for you either, regardless of your “issue”.
The beautiful, agonizing thing about the Body of Christ is that it is just that. A BODY. We cannot do life without each part. When the toe stays home, the foot is off balance. When the fingernail goes into hiding, the entire hand is in pain. When we dwell in the land of thinking we’ve blown life so badly that we cannot look into the mirror, maybe that’s exactly what we need to do…STOP looking at ourselves and look around for someone who needs us, even in our broken state, to help us navigate life’s murkiness and celebrate the rainbow that does come as we yield our brokenness to His potter’s touch. Why is it that we run FROM God when we need to run TO Him? Why is church the last place we want to go when “our chips are down”? Like Adam and Eve, we’re still trying to wear our fig leaves and pretend He doesn’t see us…and like a loving parent who sees the missing crop of hair falling from the toddler’s scissor-gripped hands or the fingerprint Monet on the living room walls, He knows it need not be permanent damage. EVERY DAY is a fresh start with God.
If we genuinely want to make a difference, we must get our eyes off ourselves and look around. Someone needs your card, your call, your words of encouragement. Someone needs your presence. Someone needs to know you overindulge in brownies, too! And most importantly of all, what light upon a hill will our churches be if its “believers” refuse to be committed to helping them become the Body of Christ that they should be?! Let us each start by being a solution to the world’s pain. The smallest effort we make in the right direction is the first step to a lifetime of peace. May He be our strength to bring us out of ourselves and into His perfect plan. He is waiting for all of us prodigals to just get back on that horse…and come home.