Ouch

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I had a humbling experience yesterday. While walking a dog I slipped on the ice and fell, face first, into some crunchy-icy-snowy-hard-sharp stuff.

My first thought was, “Is anything broken?” After all, I’d fallen pretty hard and I’m getting kind of old. Although parts of me hurt a lot (knees, wrist, nose, face) I didn’t think there were any major damages. I was also concerned that my glasses might have broken – they were covered with snow and ice.

My next thought was, “Did anyone see me do that?” I mean, come-on. I must have looked absolutely ridiculous falling on my face like that. How do you fall on your FACE anyway? Weren’t my arms strong enough to hold my head up? I really have no idea. It all happened so fast. But I was hoping that no one was around to have laughed at me.

So I pulled myself together and started slowly walking back home, my knees and face throbbing the whole way. When I got to the door, it was locked and I had to ring the doorbell for Hannah to answer. She took one look at me and thought I needed to go to the hospital! My nose, unbeknownst to me, was all bloody (on the top); I’d smashed it up a bit and scraped it pretty badly. I hadn’t cleaned off my glasses yet. They were a bit askew with ice and snow still sticking to them.

Well, after a few minutes of cleaning up and rechecking injured areas, I knew I was OK. I put some ointment on my nose to help stop the bleeding and took some aspirin for the aches I was sure to get from the fall.

I was bruised. Not just physically, but my ego as well. No one likes to fall. After all, I’ve been walking for a long time - probably 46+ years. (I’m not really sure exactly when I started walking as a child.) I felt stupid for losing my footing. I thought I should have known better.

With some time to think about the whole experience, of course, I remembered that accidents happen. Things aren’t always our fault. Sometimes life doesn’t always go the way we want it to. We stumble and fall then we get back up and learn from our experiences. I will look to the ground now when I’m walking in the winter.

But you know I’m not just talking about walking. I’m talking about my day-to-day life. I make mistakes; I falter. I ask my God for forgiveness, I think about what I could have done differently, I thank Him for his presence in me and I start a new day knowing that I am forgiven and renewed in Christ.

I also noticed through my icy experience yesterday that humility and thankfulness seem to go together. While I was humbled by my fall, I was also quite thankful that nothing was broken – my glasses remained intact, no bones were fractured. I was truly grateful at that moment.

In the scripture above, the apostles are not telling us to, ‘be humbl’ or to ’be thankful.’ They are telling us ‘to do’ not ‘to be.’ We can’t just ‘be.’ First we have to ‘do.’ In doing, you will eventually be. Every day, there are opportunities to humble ourselves. You don’t have to fall to be humbled. It's a choice we can make whenever we feel that we may not be getting our way. Humbling ourselves is as simple as making the decision to not be prideful. The more we do this, the easier and more natural it will become until, at long last, we will be humble.

Giving thanks is also a conscious decision we need to make daily. We need to thank God for the abundant and rich blessings in our life. Think about all the blessings you have received from Christ and take a moment to truly appreciate each of them. In time, we will evolve from someone who gives thanks to someone who is truly thankful.

My hope for you is not that you slip on the ice and fall on your face. My hope is that when you do fall, you can learn from it, be humbled and give thanks. My hope is that you make a decision each day, whether you fall or not, to humble yourself and thank God.