Check out this video of a couple just getting off a bus, but then…
WHAM! Suddenly the ground is gone underneath them. Though their reflexes inspire them to grab for the edge, it’s too late—They’re gone. It was about a 10-foot free fall, which is deep, especially when you have no idea that it’s coming.
I had a similar experience a few years ago, but it wasn’t a sink hole. I was walking underneath I45 near La Frontera Shopping Center. I was walking along on my way to pick up my car from the shop. I had headphones on was just coming out from under the overpass and approaching the service road on the south side, when WHAM… My foot slipped right in between the metal grates on a vent and when right through past my knee.
I went down a lot like that couple did, except I had nothing to grab on to but I stopped falling because I jammed in up to my thigh.
It happened so fast that it took me a moment to realize what even happened. My next thought of course, was to get up, which is when I realized that I was stuck!
Because I had fallen through up past my knee, which had now begun to swell because of the pressure my leg was under, I couldn’t immediately pull myself free. I struggled a few times then took off my messenger bag and tried again. Then, it hit me, “I’m really stuck in here.”
One strange thing about me you should know: I’m not a panicker. I had a friend once observe that “the house could be on fire and Simon wouldn’t panic.” (Which is actually true. I was involved in a house fire once and no, I didn’t panic.)
Before I considered calling 911, I called on the Lord to help get me free. I really did. I prayed and then I tried again. One long tug and… I was free.
It’s not every day that we fall down sinkholes or drainage grates, but I imagine that just about every day we’re taking out by unexpected trials, insults, carelessness or wounding words from others. These things don’t always send a text that they’re coming. Sometimes—most of the time—WHAM! It’s like suddenly the ground is just gone.
The point is, is we live in a broken world. And the most significant stumbles we’ll encounter are usually relational. People hurt us. People we would never have expected to let us down do.
How we respond to these unexpected trials, I believe says a lot about our hearts. Where will we turn? Who will we call on? What will we say?
Tonight, some of the men of Restoration began examine themselves to get some answers to those questions. It’s kind of a “What would you do?” series called, “True North.” The resource “True North” was written by a good friend of mine and fellow non-panicker, Gary Heim who wrote it with his wife, Lisa.
True North helps us determine where we turn to when the floor caves underneath us. And asks us to think through where we turn to when we experience those daily frustrations.
Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Cranky kids, wounding words, the loss of a job, a broken body, a painful marriage—”trouble” comes in all shapes and sizes. The Bible https://melbournerx.com/buy-cialis-melbourne.html calls it groaning. While everyone has trouble in life, not everyone has learned how to respond to it well. That is, our groaning usually causes us to grumble and react in self-serving ways. We call it “going south.”
Because of the depth of our own self-centeredness, we’ve found that nothing in life has been harder than learning how to genuinely love others in the face of rejection and frustration. But nothing is more important. Jesus boiled the Bible down to one sentence: Love God and love others (Matt. 22:37–40). That’s what life is all about. We have needed a lot of help in learning how to love God and others in the groaning of life. We call that, “going north.” Therefore, True North Ministries is dedicated to helping others “go north” as they face the troubles and frustrations of everyday life. _Gary Heim, TrueNorth.net
Not enough of us really take time, to think through where our hearts go when trials hit us. I’m proud of our guys who going offline and processing together, in the space of good friendship, how they respond when the unexpected happens.
