Afraid to Fall

I’m currently in the process of teaching one of my six-year-old nanny girls how to ride a two-wheeler bike. However, she keeps putting her feet down as I let go. She stops. She’s afraid to fall. It’s frustrating.

I love roller blading, but I’m living with my brother and sister-in-law for the summer and the neighborhood they live in is made of about as close to gravel roads as you can get. Between the rocky road, the cracks in the “tar” (you have to look even where you walk!), and hills, it’s not very fun to use my roller blades. I stop. I’m afraid to fall. It’s frustrating.

I realized this is a lot like my real life. When things get difficult and I can’t see the outcome, I stop. I’m afraid to fall. I try to take things into my own hands, change course, or put the brakes on completely when something out of my control comes, because I’m afraid to fall.

Are any of you like that? Are you afraid to fall too?

Last night at Kids of the Kingdom (check us out on Facebook—a new ministry started by Corey Berge at Grace Free Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, MN) we taught about Naaman, the man who had leprosy. (Read about it in II Kings 5:1-9) His wife’s servant knew of Elisha, and he instructed Naaman to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed. At first frustrated, he finally listened to the words of the servant girl and was healed. We talked about how God works in unexpected ways, but that’s what walking by faith is all about.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This chapter continues to speak of men and women of Scripture who had exceptional faith.

You know what I find incredible though? They may have been afraid to fall. These were men and women just like you and me. They had their doubts, their struggles, their fears. They may have been tempted to question God—think of Noah, how easy it would have been to question a flood coming in the middle of the desert! But faith is more than just believing, it’s acting. Walking by faith implies that there is movement. It means one cannot stop. Walking by faith requires trust, but it also requires obedience.

Now when I say, “requires”, this is not something that is law—something we have to do. Christ did everything for us on the Cross, and it is now Him who works in us to trust and obey. Obedience is following where God calls you, even when it doesn’t make sense. But hey, our God works in mysterious ways!

Walking by faith does not mean that all of our fears are suddenly gone. How nice that would be! However, we are still human. We still doubt and we still sin. The old man will constantly rage war against our new nature in Christ until the day that we pass into glory. But it does mean that God empowers us through what Christ did for us and through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives now to trust and obey. I still may be afraid to fall, but I know that “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And that if I fall, I know the One who is always there for me.

“I know that when I come to the edge of all light that I know and am about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, I know there will either be something solid to stand on or I will be taught to fly”