Keep Getting Up!

Did you know that February 1st was "National Get Up Day?" No??  Me neither.  But I loved reading the backstory.  Apparently National Figure Skating established this day in 2017 to mark the official end of "National Skating Month" (again, who knew that was a thing?) when rinks across the country are supposed to bring communities together to experience the joys of ice skating. Now if you ever been ice skating, you know that it's both exhilarating gliding across the ice AND intimidating as you try to avoid wiping out in some terribly painful way. Let me just say from personal experience--falling down on cold, hard ice ain't no fun at all! 

But you've probably already figured out the point--you've got to "get back up" after you fall.  And boy, that applies literally to an awful lot of sports, doesn't it, from horseback riding, to skiing, to gymnastics. But it's also equally applicable to every single endeavor we ever confront in life--when you fall down in failure, you've got the choice: give up or get up.  So here's the point of today's blog, especially in these long, dreary, often discouraging days of February: keep getting up rather than giving up. And even if no one else out there needs the reminding, well, yours truly surely does! 

In a wonderful sermon yesterday on "Thirty Truths to Wisdom," our pastor touched on a proverb that I’ve always loved: “for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in calamity.” (Prov.24:16) In teaching on wisdom, he summed this up as “the righteous keep getting up."  I love that!  Keep getting up!  "The righteous seem to go down. But they rise again. And again. And again.” And it all boils down to the fact that the righteous person enjoys “deep confidence…that the Lord has your back.”  (Or as one of our beloved Bible study leaders, Kelly, always puts it: “God’s got this!” Amen!)

As someone who has fallen and messed up more times than I can shake a stick at, how this encourages me! Because of the Gospel, I know I am more greatly flawed than I’d ever dare imagine but yet also more deeply loved than I’d ever dare hope! He is a God of second…and third…and fourth chances!  He calls us to come to Him like little children in humble repentance and faith, knowing that, because of Jesus, our Heavenly Abba (our Heavenly Daddy) will forgive us, dust us off, restore us, and send us back out there again to live by His grace and for His glory. He will never give up on us, and He’s got us, so we can and must simply keep “getting back up again..and again…and again!”  As that age-old definition of a "saint" describes it: "A saint is someone who keeps falling down and getting up...falling down and getting up...falling down and getting up...all the way to heaven." 

I shared this initially with our Bible study leaders, because let's be real: the months of January and February are just plain tough! And most of us have a tendency this time of year to start feeling a bit weary, disheartened, and defeated.  (Not to mention, stinking sick and tired of cold, blah weather!) Maybe you're discouraged with your lack of progress in tackling some challenging task or with establishing some desired new habit. (Hello failed New Year's resolutions!)  Maybe you're struggling with an unexpected illness or disease. Maybe you're discouraged with aspects of your family life or your parenting or your relationships. Maybe for you, it's a gnawing sense of loneliness, isolation, or inadequacy. Maybe it's regret or disappointment or exhaustion that seems to hover over and darken these sometimes dreary days of February.  

Well guess what?  God’s mercies are new every morning…and afternoon…and evening…and night. (Good old Lamentations 3) The Lord's faithfulness is absolutely undiminished. His love and forgiveness and grace are just as powerful, infinite and available today as they were last week or last year or 2000 years ago! And His call to, and empowering of, each one of us is just as real, true, and important today as it’s always been: we, too, can fall seven times (and seven times seventy times!), and we, too, can rise again—because we have Jesus! He is our righteousness. He is our forgiveness. He is our grace. He is our peace. He is our hope. He is our joy. And He is the One who gives us the power to rise again, get back out there, and try again!

So no matter how discouraging, exhausting, or challenging life has been for you in these doldrum weeks of January and February, will you ask God to enable you to rise again? Rise again from failure. Rise again from that sinful habit. Rise again from discouragement. Rise again from feeling inadequate. Rise again from listening to the lies of the enemy rather than the voice of Truth. Rise again from that illness or disease.  

Because Jesus arose, we can, and will, rise too—not just on the last day, but daily in our lives. Ask the Lord to enable you, by His grace and for His glory, to rise up from whatever has caused you to fall. With Him, it's always too soon to give up, and it's never too late to get up!

To God be the glory.

Will you remember?

                                 Food for weekend thought...on our thoughts

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book, Life Together: "Why is it that my thoughts wander so quickly from God's word, and that in my. hour of need the needed word is often not there? Do I forget to eat and drink and sleep? Then why do I forget God's word? Because I still can't say what the psalmist says: 'I will delight in Your statutes' (Ps.11916). I don't forget the things in which I take delight. Forgetting or not forgetting is a matter not of the mind but of the whole person, of the heart. I never forget what body and soul and depend upon. The more I begin to love the commandments of God in creation and word, the more present they will be for me in every hour. Only love protects against forgetting. 

Because God's word has spoken to us in history and thus in the past, the remembrance and repetition of what we have learned is a necessary daily exercise. Every day we must turn again to God's acts of salvation, so that we can again move forward...Faith and obedience live on remembrance and repetition. Remembrance becomes the power of the present because of the living God who once acted for me and who reminds me of that today."

Remembering is critical to our faith. Remembering Who God is and what He has done. Remembering His mighty works and His unbreakable promises in His Word. Remembering His myriad and inexhaustible daily kindnesses--big and small--in our lives.  Remembering our unyielding, relentless chains of sin...and then remembering that because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, our chains are gone. Remembering that because Jesus was forsaken on that cross, we will never ever be forsaken. Remembering His Holy Spirit is with us every moment of every day and every night, and He is continually guiding, encouraging, strengthening, convicting, reminding, empowering. Remembering His priceless gift of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, both family and friends. Remembering His supernatural and beautiful gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Gal.5:22-23) 

Remembering fills our hearts, feeds our gratitude, and fuels our faith. No wonder Scripture repeatedly warns against forgetting and exhorts us to remember.

Yet, isn't it remarkable how prone we can be to, as Paul David Tripp puts it, spiritual amnesia? Let's face it--we can all be foolish, weak, "what-have-You-done-for-me-lately" spiritual amnesiacs! One minute we're rejoicing in the wonderful things God has done, and the next moment, when a sudden squall hits us, we completely forget Who is with us, what He has done, what He's promised, and what He can do! 

So what's the antidote? Choosing intentionally, continually to remember. We have to, as one of my favorite passages puts it, call it to mind. "Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's faithful love, we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say, 'The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him." (Lam.3:21-24). 

Yes, we choose to "call it to mind." And we do it daily. Jeremiah, the writer of Lamenations, says that God's mercies and faithful love are "new every morning"--meaning he rediscovers and savors this daily when He reminds himself of Who God is, what He is like, what He has done. Remembering, therefore, is a daily necessary and life-giving exercise. 

And remembering requires something quite simple yet critically important: reading. Open up God's Word and read what He has for you, specifically for you, each day. Read and remember. Don't let a day pass without listening to the Lord of the universe as He speaks to you in His Word--helping you, encouraging you, convicting you, equipping you. And while you're at it, take a few minutes each day to remember and record the ways you have seen God move--in His Word and in your life. The act of writing it down helps us remember, and I know I surely need all the help I can get! Finally, take the time to remember and rejoice. Rejoice in His greatness and His goodness. Rejoice in the gift of His Word. Rejoice in the joy of salvation. Rejoice in the refreshing winter air and the ability to sip that hot tea or savor that chocolate cake. Rejoice in the blessing of friends, family, church. 

This week, will you intentionally and daily choose to remember?  Remember by reading His Word. Remember by recording His work in your life. And remember by rejoicing in all His manifold gifts. 

To God--the glorious Giver of all good gift--be all the glory.