One step forward, two steps back

“for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.”
-Proverbs 3:26

We spend so much time in our lives trying to fix things that we messed up. We spend so much time looking back and trying to figure out what went wrong. From the very simple to the complex, we are always trying to put out metaphorical fires and retrace steps.

There’s not an important relationship in my life that I haven’t had to mend at some point or another. And the cracks in those relationships are usually over something pretty silly. I cannot tell you how many minor misunderstandings with my wife have turned into arguments.

A much more minor example would be this very paragraph. I began it one way and then decided against it, so I slapped down the delete key to try to find where the sentence went wrong. Before I publish it, I will read it over again and probably fix something else.

Almost every election we have is about someone wanting to fix the problems another guy caused. Politics is ultimately the art of trying to fix something we messed up ages ago.

Every day it seems I mess up with something, someone, or somehow. I am constantly going back to repair something I did.

How is it we can walk through this world with any sort of confidence at all? How can we walk with our head so high when we have so often tripped and fallen in the past? For many people, it is pride. I remember not too long ago when I was just consumed with pride. (I still struggle with pride daily, but a few years ago, it was bad.) I wonder now what caused me to be so proud, because I certainly hadn’t earned it in any way. Like most others, I was messing everything up all the time.

But it is pride, I think, that drives so many. They think that they have the answers, and that people need to listen to them. How strange. I know myself, and I, above all others, should know that there is no reason for me to be proud. I know how often I make mistakes, how often I ruin things for myself and others. And you know what? I still sometimes think I know the answers, when I should know that I don’t.

This promise of God is very special to me, and it’s for this very reason. I know that I’m not worth my own trust. And yet God, who is perfect in every way, has come beside me and told me, “Put your arm around Me; I’ll keep you from falling.”

As David said in his wonderful psalm: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

When Jesus came to earth, He showed us how to walk. He led the way for us, teaching us without a single misstep and without faltering. He bade us came after Him, telling us that He is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”

In His death, He followed us to death itself to insure that our stumbles would not cause us to be forever lost. He carried us back and set us upon His path again. He sent His Spirit to us as a guide, to teach us the way, to help us in every moment.

In Christ I can have confidence. I cannot have such confidence in myself, for I have tripped far too often. But in Him I know my feet are firmly planted. It is only when I get distracted and wander off from Him that I fall again. And yet He always comes for me, every time.

If you don’t know this sort of firm footing, you need to turn away from your own flawed efforts to stand and trust in Him. Repent of those old ways and believe in Jesus. You can have confidence in what He offers, for it is only through Him that we will find eternal life.