I took a rather nasty spill two nights ago, the devious doing of a small, severed tree stump which jutted from the soil where my foot happened to land as I ran to meet the Light Rail at Mt. Royal. Said stump twisted my right ankle and sent me sprawling onto the pavement, bouncing on my left knee before I finally landed hard on my right arm.
I haven’t had a fall like that since I was a boy. My breath was seriously knocked out of me, and I had to roll over on my back and stare up at the cold night sky for a few seconds before getting up. But get up I did, with no serious damage beyond a skinned knee, cut palms, and a painful twinge in my right shoulder, which took most of the impact. It took the rest of the light rail ride downtown for the adrenaline to drain out of my system.
Late nights, long train rides, and lost love are taking their toll, I suppose. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and am taken aback by the sad weariness etched into the face that stares back at me. But I plod on. This is the long road to manhood, and He who leads me knows my limits; He will not test me beyond what I can endure.
I’ve taken some nasty, heartbreaking falls, and in many ways I am still lying on the pavement, still wondering if anything is broken. But I will stand up, and I will take His hand anew. As King David charged Solomon his son, “Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn…”
“Show yourself the man!” I find that counsel strangely inspiring. A large part of my goal in all this is to emerge as a “real man” — whatever that may mean — to be able to bear, by God’s grace, the burdens and challenges of life with maturity and responsibility, and to always rest upon His strength. Then perhaps one day in the future, I will hear Him say…