Falling Flat.....

God has a great sense of humor. I often feel His smile and sometimes I am sure I hear the echo of heavenly laughter as He looks down on me from the throne room of heaven. He says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, but He also made the platypus so what does that tell you?

But it is not just appearances that can be funny. Sometimes it is my antics that make Him smile (or frown, like when I get mad over something silly). And sometimes, I think He is just sharing a joke with me.

Last week I wrote this as my Facebook status (Are you my friend on Facebook? I’d love it if you were!)……..”Kim Zweygardt is running hard toward the high calling of God. ‘Lord, don’t let me trip on my shoelace or step in a hole.’” I didn’t know at the time, but I was penning prophecy!

I didn’t think about that status update as I lay on the pavement of a 4-lane just outside Rockies Stadium in Denver Saturday night. I was thinking more along the lines of “Dear God, please don’t let the light change and someone run over me in their hurry to get to the game!” not to mention, “I bet I look like an idiot. Who, at my age, falls down just running across the street?” and finally, “OUCH!”

It is funny now, but no chuckle escaped my lips at the time. I’d like to say the same about my 3 kids who stood shocked and laughing on the curb in the rain. Although, I will say they were making sympathetic noises of concern as  Kary stepped into the street, lifting me in his strong arms, snatching me from the jaws of death. 

No wait.

That is a scene from my next book.

My dear husband, as he ran back to help me up was yelling, “The tickets! Pick up the tickets!” Luckily, the wet street kept our game tickets that had fluttered from my pocket on the way down from blowing away and the only thing lost in the fracus was three baseball sized pieces of skin from my knees….and my pride.

I’m still not sure exactly what happened. I’d been up late the night before making salads for our kick-off event to the Mugs N Muffins Book Group with Kim Vogel Sawyer. I’d gotten up early that morning to make sure everything at the church was just right. And in between my mind had whirled with thoughts and prayers for all the things going on, so I know I was physically tired.

Wish that was an excuse, but in reality, I tend to be on the clumsy side. Remember choosing sides to play games in elementary school? I have a confession to make. I was always chosen last. I remember so well standing in the line of excited hopefuls for the games at recess, praying someone would choose me and I wouldn’t be left standing alone, not chosen, but forced on a team that hadn’t wanted me.

When I went to college as my talkative, bubbly self, multiple people said to me, “I bet you were a cheerleader in High School.”

Uh, no. Have you seen me walk?

When I fall, I fall like a stone. It’s not pretty.

We’d parked the car and were walking to the game when we needed to cross a busy street. The traffic slowed for a minute, held back by a stop light (and the crosswalk) half a block away. Kary and the kids hollered to me bringing up the rear, “Let’s run!’ My legs heard it as my mind said, “I don’t think that’s a good thing for me.” Legs in motion, I began my trot across the rain slicked street as they reached the other curb but something happened on the way.

I don’t remember tripping. I didn’t even have shoelaces to trip on. I didn’t see a hole. Everything around me blurred into slow motion just like in the movies right up to the moment I smacked hard pavement. Nothing slow about eating pavement.

Later as I snacked on Ball Park Pizza, I pondered exactly what happened and that is when I heard the holy laughter of heaven. And remembered my FB status. And I could see the humor in the situation along with the life lesson.

It is so like us to fall flat when we hurry, when we are tired, when we have our own plan (jaywalking), when we run toward a high calling that we assume is from God when maybe its not. God in His infinite mercy and grace picks us up from where we have fallen and brushes us off to run again….and I am sure He chuckles at our infantile antics.

I am so glad that even with my innate clumsiness, He has chosen me. No longer do I stand in the line of endless humanity, hoping against hope to be chosen. He has chosen me. Not just for His team of Heavenly Home Run Hitters but to be adopted into His family. That is a much better deal than the one I got in 4th Grade.

I know I’ll fall again. Physically and spiritually. I am sure I’ll make Him smile and hear His laughter at my feeble attempts to run this race. Not the derisive laugh of a harsh disciplinarian, but the gentle laughter of a loving Father encouraging a beloved child who is learning something new.

As I nursed my skinned knees on Sunday morning, I read Galations 5:25, 26. “For since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

“Next time I run, Lord, let me run with Your Spirit. And, thanks for picking me up once more.”