My buddy, Todd, and I took our normal 7 mile Sunday run yesterday and it was great to have our friend Sam join us. It was 39 degrees so it was definitely not my favorite conditions to be running. Something happened yesterday on that run that got me thinking. We usually run to a designated 3.5 mile spot and head back home. We made it to the turn around point and we were making great time, when all of a sudden I tripped on the side walk and went down. When I say I went down, I mean I actually tumbled over. I tried desperately to keep my balance, to stay on my feet but it was no use, I was going to go down. Now remember there are two other guys there watching me. I jumped up quickly as though that would minimize the embarrassment of what had just happened to me. Then the questions came "Are you alright? That looked like it hurt? Do you want to just walk for a bit?" And right then something happened that God would use later to teach me something. You see here I am with my friends, guys who care about me, guys I know and what do I do? I lie, and I allow my pride to get the best of me and say "I'm alright!!!" The truth was that I was hurting and it would of been nice to walk for a while. Now here is the worst part. I played it off so well that my buddies, begin to say "good thing you have all those years of gymnastics under your belt because you rolled really nicely." Are you kidding me I am thinking, the roll was totally an accident. I was just hoping that I would not break my neck. That is truly what I was thinking, but what I said was "yeah."
Now before you go on judging me for being a liar, let me tell you what God showed me. God pierced my heart later on that day with this thought...Orlando you talk a lot about the importance of community and the importance of doing life with others, but it is one thing to talk about it and another to actually experience it. You see its great to have running mates, its great to have people come along side of you and push you, but the true character and heart of transparency comes when you fall and your willing to tell others that you are hurt and that you do need help. I am telling you it was a powerful lesson. You see we will never experience true community if we allow our pride to get in the way, if we allow our ego, or our fears to get in the way of our need to be honest when we are hurting. The reality is that we only do further harm to ourselves when we fail to be honest about our hurts. Now you can easily say well when I fall aren't I suppose to jump right back up and shake off the dust and keep trucking? Absolutely, but we have to be willing to admit and become vulnerable in the moments when we can't. God did not call us to live in isolation, but in dependence upon Him and in interdependence with others. So how quick are you to allow others to know you are hurting when you trip or when you fall? Do you have anyone right now in your life that you are running with who would even ask you the question? Just another rambling. Have a great week.
Two are better than one,because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecc. 4:9-10
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