Rally Cap part 5
Everybody gets knocked down. Or falls down. Because sometimes its not your fault... but sometimes it is. And either way, when you're down you need someone to help you back up. You DON'T need someone to kick you when you're down. Let me give you an example of it not being your fault. There might be times in your life when someone will throw you under the bus in order to save their own bacon. Its happened to me, personally. And I've found that fighting back can do more harm than good. But if you have someone that knows the truth, and goes to bat FOR you... that's powerful. Someone to put on the rally cap and cheer for their teammates. Not let me give you an example of it being your fault. Again, me personally (and I always try to use myself as an example so nobody else gets offended). There are times when I've gotten myself into trouble by trying to do to much, and letting things (or, unfortunately, people) fall through the cracks. Times when I tried to do everything, and ended up not being able to do anything. Or at least not do anything right. And while being persecuted for righteousness, or being in a situation where its NOT your fault, and then having someone back you up is awesome... there's not a much stronger act of love than helping someone who got themselves into a mess. Because I KNEW it was my fault. And I knew that I deserved what I got. But grace is getting what you don't deserve, and mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Hearing someone say, "You really messed up... but I love you and I'm going to help you," that's about as good as it gets. And that's what I try to teach Logan; don't hide things from me, because if I don't know what the problem is I can't help fix the problem. And remember how we're trying to treat everybody like they're our favorite person in the world? Helping everybody whether they "deserve" it or not? Because deserve's got nothing to do with it. Love is not conditional. You don't have to earn it. And thank God for that because you CAN'T earn it. The gift of God--eternal life, knowing the one truth God (who is love) and the One He has sent... knowing God as Father and ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--the gift of God is just that. A gift. It must be received and released. And we receive it BY releasing it. Letting God love the hell out of us and loving the hell out of each other. Letting God help us so that we can help each other. And God works... through people. So whether its our fault or not, we need to let people help us. Cheerleaders need cheerleaders. We all need each other. We're all in this together. So if someone's willing to help you--a pretty rare thing, to be honest--let them. And if you can help someone... help them. Do what you can do. Give what you've got. Put the rally cap on. I believe the only time you should ever look down on someone is to REACH down and help them up. Everybody gets knocked down. Everybody falls down. Everybody makes mistakes. But a mistake doesn't have to define you. When you fall, or when you get knocked down, you can rise back up again. And that's even easier to do when you have help. When you're GIVING help! We're all on the same team. We're all in this together. So let God love you--through people--and love Him back--by loving people!