Get up.

 

I remember a song that was popular about 15 or 20 years ago. It was about falling down and getting up again. I think it was about a Priest, or something.  I was looking for an image tonight of that idea...fall down 7 times, get up 8.  Turns out, it's a Japanese Proverb.

Then I came across this picture. Powerful, isn't it?

I cannot get up.
Cannot get up.
Get up.
Up.

When I look at this fighter, I see "spent," "done."  Exhausted. Dejected.

I feel kind of like this guy tonight.  Mental and emotional battles are often more exhausting than the physical battles.

Do you remember the movie "Parenthood," with Steve Martin? There's a scene at the end where he's talking to his mother, and she is comparing life to a roller coaster. He's thinking about all of the worst aspects of the roller coaster ride, and she's thinking about all of the fun and exciting aspects of the ride. 

Life is a wild ride. I call it my 'wild toad ride' when it gets crazy.  It's been crazy lately...well, truthfully, it went down the crazy chute at the end of February, and hasn't quite come out of the tunnel just yet.  Still...there have been some delightful spins and turns along the way, along with the nutty and stressful bumps and drops.  Used to be, when my ride would bump and drop, I'd go entirely into this 'feeling space' where I couldn't connect very well to rational thoughts.  Maybe you know what I mean...it's a space where the future looks foggy, and like your ride will never straighten out again.  Thanks to many years of input from wise friends, teachers, counselors and mentors, I can still feel the crazy and stressful feelings, but in a way that allows me to stay in touch with a rational space in my head.  The crazy will abate and eventually give way to the smooth and breezy part of the ride.

The trick is to get up on the days when the crazy bumps and dips seem insurmountable. Stay on the ride for just a little while longer.  When you fall down the seventh time, get up.  One more time.  Get up.  We only have to get up one more time than we fall down.

Nothing can keep you down, but you.  Nothing can keep me down, but me. Bowed, but not broken.  Distressed, but not despairing. May the same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead raise us on the days we fall down.