Trish #23

Trish walked today. She has been walking slowly for several days now, between the parallel bars, anyway. She has taken little baby steps with her wobbly legs. Today though, she used a walker. With a little help from her therapists, she walked down the hallway, sat down in a chair, rested a bit and then returned to the parallel bars. She was exhausted afterward and had to go to bed for a nap but she had walked. I watched as her feet began taking the kinds of natural steps that showed that her brain is beginning to remember how to walk.

I thought of a verse of Chris Rice's Untitled Hymn:

Like a newborn baby, you have to learn to crawl

Just remember when you walk sometimes you fall;But fall on Jesus, Fall on Jesus, Fall on Jesus --and live!

If Trish allows herself to get paralyzed by the fear of falling she will never walk again. Falling may happen. It's a part of walking. But she can't worry about that. She has to focus on throwing her energies into walking.

I remember first hearing Chris Rice's song at a funeral. We had gathered to honor the memory and the ministry of Jim Roam, surely one of America's finest pastors. I listened as Dan Dean sang the song. When he got to the verse about walking, I nearly came unglued.

Somehow, as I was growing up, I got the idea that falling was the worse thing anyone could ever do. I remember a number of times hearing people whispering about others who had made some kind of mistake. "well, brother, he fell!" they would say. I recall how the atmosphere would fill with sorrow and dread, like someone had died that would not be coming back. How I wish I could go back in time. I would ask those mourning people a question, "well, did he get back up?"

When I heard Dan Dean sing Untitled Hymn, a most powerful revelation broke through to my soul. I grasped at the core of my being it seemed that when you walk, sometimes you fall. That's the way life works. Just make sure you "fall on Jesus and live." The apostle Peter fell on Jesus and lived; the apostate Judas fell and never got up again.

How you fall and what you do about it when you fall, is everything.

Trish has the most wonderful therapists. They encourage her every step. When she makes a mistake, they give her feedback about how she can avoid making the same mistake the next time. As a result, she keeps walking -- however slow, however crooked and however wobbly -- she keeps on walking.

What would happen to our churches if we could learn to pastor the way those therapists care for their patients? What if we told people,

Like a newborn baby, you have to learn to crawl

Just remember when you walk sometimes you fall;But fall on Jesus, Fall on Jesus, Fall on Jesus --and live!

Maybe more people would learn to walk.