FALLING FLAT, STANDING TALL

“Head up! Shoulders back!” instructed my piano teacher in first grade, shouted my track coach in seventh and prodded my typing instructor while in high school.

Through years of practice and constant reminders, I have developed excellent posture - an automatic response when sitting down to work.

For I have been taught that a slouch can affect performance and lead to unpleasant chords, misspelled motives or an inability to finish strong.

I have also found that the manner in which I hold myself up, can affect how others view me, and even how I see myself. 

I suppose that’s why, when I tend to slump a little, I am quick to recover with a straightened spine.

Do you find yourself doing the same?

Because if this broken world has taught us anything, it is “only the strong survive”; so we have a natural tendency to approach our Creator from the wrong angle.

We walk up to Him as if we exist on the same level. When in reality, it is only by His mercy that we are even able to take a step. 

So lately, I have been practicing a new position-one that finds me face down, flat on the floor, before my God.

Sometimes it’s because I am feeling defeated, or just plain over it all.

Mostly, though, it is simply because I know that I can’t do life without Him.

I’m letting Jesus- and the same power which raised Him from the dead-stand tall in my wobbly flesh.

For when I struggle to pull myself up by my own boot straps before a Holy God, I quickly topple.

But Jesus graciously steps into my place, and yours - His head up and His shoulders back - bearing every bit of our weakness and sin.

And because of Who He is, He always exhibits the perfect posture that none of us can achieve - upright standing, equal with God.

Even still, He bends down and asks us to scootch over to make room for Him and plops Himself right down - smack dab in the middle of our dreams and heartaches.

And He sits there with us until that glorious day when He will pull us up - head up, shoulders back - standing tall with Him forever.

“Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand. For the Lord is able to make him stand.” Romans 14:4 HCSB