Trip and fall in front of your friends? Anytime that happens, the best thing to do is to just bounce right back up and keep on going.
To the airport.
Then leave the country.
Maybe change your name.
It’s not easy to save face after one of those inelegant face-plants. Been there, planted that. I think I once accidentally ate a little dirt.
The last time I took a tumble there was no dirt-eating, but I think I do remember the faint taste of carpet. It was in a busy hallway at church. So it was really more the taste of carpet and humiliation. Humiliation has less fiber, but a much stronger and longer-lasting flavor.
It’s always nice to have friends nearby who will help you up though. Well actually, to laugh uproariously for several minutes first. And then, of course, make merciless fun of you for years. But at least they do help you up somewhere in between.
I love the reminder in Ecclesiastes 4 that “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up,” (vv. 9-10, HCSB).
Proverbs 18:24 also makes a thought-provoking point. “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother,” (ESV). There are times when it’s not enough to simply have someone standing by. Those surfacey kinds of acquaintances will come and go in our lives. But there is a true and lasting blessing in a friend who’s with you through all your ups and downs. Through every victory and every tumble. And there’s great blessing in becoming that kind of friend to someone as well.
Since the Father has so much to say about the importance of relationships, and since He included it all through His word, I’m taking that to mean I need to be reminded. We need each other. We need each other when we’ve just taken a header, and just as much when we’re gracefully tiptoeing along. I find myself remembering all the more clearly each time a close friend offers godly counsel or encourages me to seek the Lord. I remember it well each time friends spur me on or inspire me to walk closer to Christ by their godly example. And yes, still again each time a friend helps scrape me off the pavement after a spill.
If you’re experiencing one of those seasons in life when close friends are not as accessible, could I encourage you to keep praying, asking the Lord to send a bud your way? Who knows? He might drop one right in front of you. Like in a church hallway. It could happen.
Meanwhile, Psalm 37:23-24 tells us that, “The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand,” (NIV). Whether there is a friend nearby or not, the Lord is never absent or inattentive. Even if there’s a bit of a spill, we’re lovingly held.
True friends? They’re a blessed bonus. It’s amazing how the Lord can use them to forever impact our lives for Him.
Good impact. Because there’s impact. And then there’s impact on carpet.