I must be on fall number #8, 306

I need to climb down off my spiritual high horse.

Sometimes, I get really annoyed with my sisters and brothers in Christ. Sometimes I want to hit them in the head and yell, "What are you thinking?!!!!?

Here's the thing...

There are so many times when I am walking with a friend, journeying with them in Christ, and they stumble over a big log.

I want to get really mad at this stumble.

Why?

Because about 500 yards back when we were talking about this big log in the road, I encouraged them not to look at it. In fact, I flatly said, "You can't do this. You are setting your face towards sin and in turn saying that you love this log more than you love Christ."

And all the way along as we walk, they tell me about how they have tried everything to fix the situation with the log.

They have prayed, they have fasted, they have screamed at the log, they have said sorry to the log, they have run away from the log, they have thought bitterly about the log and how all it does is suck the joy out of their life.

They have, they assure me, done everything to avoid the log.

And yet, here we are...at the log, and they are about to bump into it and stumble.

I want to yell and scream at them.

I want to say, "You can't fix this by 'trying everything'. Trying everything is your whole problem. You can't fix this. You can't make the log go away. Only Christ in you has the power to overcome the log. Stop trying and just surrender already! You have to submit to His plan and the way He wants to fix it. Stop leaning on your own understanding."

I am so tempted to drag them from the log.

I have already warned and counselled about the log. I have prayed until I have no words, I only groan now. The Lord gets my groaning. He interprets it.

I want to rescue them from the log...

But then that makes me a hypocrite, doesn't it?

I think I need to have a little conversation with myself. One that goes like this:

You can't fix this by 'trying everything'. Trying everything is your problem. You can't fix this. You can't make the log go away. Only Christ in you has the power to overcome the log. Stop trying and just surrender already! You have to submit to His plan and the way He wants to fix it. Stop leaning on your own understanding."

I want the people in my life to love what God loves, and to hate what He hates. I want there to be a passionate intolerance for sin and a resolve like Shadrach's that says, "I know my God is able to save me but even if He does not I would never bow" to the alternative.

I can't fix this.

Only He can.

If I try, I will be as though I had a log in my own eye.

I stumble.

Often.

It might do me good to remember that, "a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again...."

I might want to be the hand that helps them rise again.