day no. 16,206: faith riseth up again

"‘There is no avoiding danger in our country,’ said History. ‘Do you know what happens to people who set about learning to skate with a determination to get no falls? They fall as often as the rest of us, and they cannot skate in the end.’" -- C.S Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress

If you want to be good at something, you have to be willing to first be bad at it. No one learns to skate who is unwilling to learn how to fall, or more to the point, who learn how to get back up. Everyone falls down. No one goes from novice to expert. Far too often we flatter ourselves by assuming that other people's skills were all gifted to them by the gods in some kind of savant-style situation. 

In most cases, however, the reason other people are good at something is because they were willing to be worse at it than they wished for longer than they wanted. But they had grit. They had resolve and hard work and calling back to the earlier point, they got up. They were willing to fail more than we were. Success follows a long train of failures. If we were willing to fail more, we'd be better equipped to succeed now.

Proverbs 24:16

For a just man falleth seven times,

and riseth up again:

but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

I need this reminder. I don't like falling down. I like to do my homework ahead of time in order to avoid falling on my face. And I can all too easily become discouraged at falling down and count it as a sign of not being cut out to be good, when in reality, it is merely the curriculum by which anyone understands or achieves anything. 

The difference between the righteous man and the wicked one, is that the righteous believes in the power of resurrection. The righteous or diligent man lives by faith that he will rise again by the power and grace of the good Lord Almighty. The wicked or lazy man falls away and then looks for a way to make a life for himself under the bleachers or in the gutter.

The righteous fall and trust God to forgive their failings as they get back to work.

Micah 7:8

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the LORD will be a light to me.