AVOIDING THE STUMBLE

“Dear friend, guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life; don’t for a minute lose sight of them.  They’ll keep your soul alive and well, they’ll keep you fit and attractive.  You’ll travel safely; you’ll neither tire nor trip.” (Proverbs 3:21 -23 MSG)

Isn’t it hilarious how creative and inventive people get when they inevitably stumble while walking in a place where others can see them?  It’s comical; completely entertaining!  That’s certainly true when we are not the one trying to avoid the embarrassment of not keeping guard on where or how we are walking.  If we stumble, we too resort to resourceful, responsive and instantaneous moves in an effort to hide the fact that we were tripped up because we were not alert; not looking out for hazards; not paying attention to our surroundings.  In some cases, we were not able to avoid the stumble because we had walked a long distance and as a result, our feet decided they would only be dragged along, not lifted up any higher, as if they had been given some type of special authority over our minds.

Think of some of the moves we have made when we stumbled while walking in the presence of others.  We acted like we intentionally changed our walk to a cool street-smart stride and covered it up by a distracting conversation that coordinated with the walk.  We have disguised the stumble as a new dance move that brought about admiration or started accidentally started a new dance craze.  Some of us, male and female, out of the blue, we turned our stumble into a stupendous basketball move to hide out stumbling!  Could it be that this is where “faked left and went right” came from?  Is that where the step back jump shot originated?  Another move that I have seen is where the person that stumbled stayed down and faked an injury.  Others around came running to the rescue and ridicule was avoided; pity took the place of persistent laughter.  All these moves could have been circumvented, avoided, if we were walking wisely, looking where we were going and not failing to lose sight of the surface we were walking on.  Oh, let me add this one.  One of my grandsons came over to visit before I had replaced some stick-on-tile with hardwood flooring.  He noticed the hazards of popped up tiles caused by the lost effectiveness of the adhesive material on the back side of the tile.  Instead of just avoiding stumbling for his own good, he walked around the whole house trying to push down every popped-up tile with his little feet.  He was being considerate, helping other avoid a stumble.  God bless his soul!

Well, that’s why I am writing this meditation this morning.  I wanted to be considerate too and send you some good advice on avoiding the stumble.  The paraphrased verses above point to clear thinking, common sense, and not losing sight of God’s inspired words as helpful advice to keep from stumbling.  As you have already recognized, I have changed the focus from actual, physical stumbling to spiritually stumbling in your daily walk as a child of God.  The New American Standard expresses the same verses this way, “My son, let them not depart from your sight; keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul, and adornment to your neck.  Then you will walk securely and your foot will not stumble.”

Keep in mind that you should not only be concerned about yourself avoiding the stumble, but like my grandson, take actions to help keep others from stumbling.  Have a great Tuesday as you walk on my friend!  Be blessed!

^“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4 ESV)

Still committed to the climb,

Mark L. King