Pride Before a Fall (Proverbs 16:18) |
Humpty Dumpty moments... Have you had one? Come on, be honest with yourself… I know I have…
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
We have all heard the story of Humpty Dumpty, haven't we?
Ask yourself this - How close are you to falling off the edge of the wall of your own life? And are you even aware of the fact that you are sitting on the very edge?
In one shocking moment, you’re free falling…
Humpty Dumpty
sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great
fall.All the King's horses,
All the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again.
There you lay waaaaaaaay down on the ground looking up at the distance of how far you’ve fallen. You are absolutely incredulous.
"How did this happen? Why did this happen? What happened?"
Your thoughts are as shattered as your being.
“This can’t be happening to me… Things like this don’t happen to me, they happen to someone else. I must be dreaming. That’s it – this isn’t real. I’m dreaming…”
You lay there with no idea of how much time has passed, willing yourself to wake up from this dreadful dream so that you can just shake it off and laugh over it by sharing the “dream” with a friend. Yet the dream doesn’t go away and you don’t wake up. It’s not a dream, it’s real and you don’t know what to do.
Soon you can hear the rumbling of the ground, even from as far below as you are, the sound of hoofs hitting the pavement above. Before long the King's men peer out at you from over the top of the wall.
“Help me!!!!” You cry out, relieved that help has finally arrived.
They look long and hard at you from waaaaaaay above.
“Help you?” The leader responds.
“Yes! Help me!” You cry out somewhat exasperated wanting to stamp your foot if only it wasn’t over there… Somewhere...
“Well if I help you – who will help ME?” The leader questions eyeballing the distance from the wall to the ground, “What if I fall because YOU fell?” He adds, backing up. And in following his lead the others back up as well.
“Well if you don’t help me, who will?” You cry out in despair.
"Clearly you brought this all on yourself.” One of the King’s men calls down. “This is your fault. You did it; you fell and now look at you.” He waves his hand in disgust at your scattered pieces. “What an absolute mess!”
“It serves you right!” Yells down another, “Why should I lower myself down to your level and risk my own life to help you out? No thank you! I have my own life to consider!”
“Maybe you were pushed!” Another King’s men suggests. “What did you do to make someone push you off that wall?”
“You must have done something to deserve this.” Calls down another, “If I were you, I would sit there and look back on my life and see what I did to find myself in such a predicament. You must be being punished for something you’ve done.”
Oh how the taunts and jabs continue, on and on they went looking down their pompous noses at your scattered pieces, not trying to help, not caring that you could hear every single word they said.
One by one the King's men turned their horses around and go about their merry way. And although you can no longer see them from your lowly position of below the wall, you can imagine the slander, gossip and stories that will be told throughout the town of the state they found you in.
If not for the noisiness of your own thoughts, all would be quiet...
"Maybe it is my fault… Perhaps I was over confident in my life. Perhaps I became too cocky and prideful and maybe even judgmental and so sure of myself. Never in a million years did I ever think this is where I would be… No one can help me now, it’s hopeless, I don’t see a way out. I suppose I shall lie here and die.”
“You will not die. The number of your days shall be fulfilled." (Exodus 23:26) "I can help you.”
“Great, I’m really losing it now.” You say out loud. “I’m losing my mind on top of everything else…”
“Are you ready to listen to me? Or will you drown me out as you’ve done in the past by covering my voice up with excuses or with the noisiness of your life? If you had listened to me up there on the wall, you would not be in the physically broken state you are in.”
“Go ahead! Taunt me as the King’s men have! Kick me when I’m down! There is nothing you can say that is any different from what I’ve already heard!” You cry out wishing you had arms to fling out in frustration but they are located way over there somewhere...
“How about, I love you? How about, though your sins are scarlet I shall make them white as snow.”(Isaiah 1:18)
The words are healing. They begin to soothe you, like a mother soothes a fussy child. You’re fully listening.
“I came so that you could have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10), yet you thought you knew better than I what that abundance in your life should be. So against my better judgment, I let you. I wanted you trust in me with all your heart and not to lean on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6), I wanted you to acknowledge me in all your ways. Yet you never made time for me. The more I tried to show my love for you, the more you allowed the noise of your life to drown me out. There have been many times in your life where I have had to sit back and watch you – fall. I’ve been waiting for you to call upon my name. Yet you didn’t. And the louder your life has gotten the quieter my voice has become.”
It’s true, you think. And so obvious, there is no denying it. “Okay.” You say. “What choice do I have?”
“You have always had a choice. You just haven’t chosen the wisest ones.”
“I’m listening…”
The Holy Spirit continues to speak words of love and healing and direction over you and as you lay there intently listening, receiving and nodding in agreement with the words He says, your pieces start to fly together from where they are strewn and hold fast until all of you is as you once were, whole. As God had originally created you to be, yet there is something that is now a part of you that wasn’t before…
His peace.
His wonderful, beautiful peace – that passes ALL worldly understanding and comes only from Him.
You rise up a new creation.
“Remember all I have said to you,” The Lord says. “The truth is Humpty, you were broken on the inside before you even fell off that wall. You just didn’t know it. Sometimes I have to allow situations in your life to happen, because it is the only way I can get your undivided attention; bring you to a point where you can truly see that the only answer is ME. For without Me, whether you admit it or not – you are broken. You are lost and there is NO ONE who can put you back together again. Not yourself, not anyone else – only ME. To try to find another way is useless. For I am the way, the truth and the life; No one comes to the Father, except by Me.” (John 14:6). It takes some people their whole life to realize the truth of My words – if at all. There has always been a plan for your life and all you have ever needed to do – is acknowledge me and heed it.”
Psalms 18:33-36 fills your head as you walk back up to where you had fallen off that wall and peer down at the distance you had fallen.
“He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great. You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.”
And you rejoice and thank God for His forgiveness, His grace, His mercy, His patience and most of all His love and that the best, safest place to be – is in His presence in His good and perfect will. With that realization you also realize that life is a journey and during those times when you feel “broken” all you need to do is call on His name and He will restore you.
“I will restore to you the years that the Locust has eaten.” (Joel 2:25)
He calls you "His Beloved" because He loves you, and whether or not you are aware of it - you belong to Him.
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