Falling Back is Fine; Just be Sure Who’s Behind You
Don’t forget to “fall back” this weekend. Not literally, of course, but rather as a friendly reminder to turn your clocks back one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night. The good news is that we get an extra hour of sleep heading into Sunday; the bad news is that we enter into a period of prolonged evening darkness.
Life is like that in a lot of ways. We seem willing to gamble on a short-term benefit, even at the risk of a longer period of negative consequences. Sometimes, the “dark side” (and I’m not talking about those who sit on the far right side of the sanctuary during worship), seems more tempting, more appealing than the lighted pathway that the Lord puts before us.
When we make that unfortunate choice and opt for darkness over the light, we often fall back. Sometimes it’s a fairly minor stumble, and we are able to regain our balance quickly, but occasionally, we fall hard and find it difficult to get back up. We are dazed and disoriented as we fall deeper into the hole of darkness, which we freely choose to enter in the first place.
It is then, finally, that we recognize the error of our ways, and realize that we cannot regain solid footing without God’s help, so we cry out, and He answers in a way that is very similar to this passage from the 41st Chapter of Isaiah, Verse 10, when he says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
How reassuring and uplifting, but at the same time disappointing and discouraging because we put ourselves in that position though an intentional and unwise decision.
That, however, is the nature of our relationship with Him. He is always there to rescue us, redeem us, and reconciles with us. Of course we don’t have to fall into darkness to fall back into his everlasting arms. All we need to do is surrender to him — in both good times and bad.
So enjoy your extra hour of sleep this weekend, and take comfort in the fact that we can all rest in his arms, but don’t sleep too late. Worship still begins at 10:30 a.m., (albeit one hour later than a week ago).
ALL-SAINTS CELEBRATION: Sunday is All-Saints Day, when we celebrate the return of God’s faithful disciples into His Heavenly Kingdom. If you lost a loved one, or even a friend or acquaintance in the past year, please feel free to text me at 330-988-2577, and we will include them in Sunday’s service.
Until we meet again, Be Blessed! – Pastor John