When You Can't Get Back Up

On my day of skiing, I was very careful to go slowly the whole way down, zigging and zagging across the mountain. I didn't want to fall given my new diagnosis of osteoporosis. However, there were two times I fell. Once I fell while skiing, and just hit an icy patch and lost control. I quickly got back up, since I was on the steep downhill, all I had to do was shift my body towards gravity and it was pretty easy to right myself.

The other fall was when I came off the chairlift. It was very steep and icy there and so I fell at the bottom of the little off-ramp. It is level at the bottom, so I had no gravity to help me get up. In fact, gravity was not my friend at all. I could not push myself up. I guess my legs were tired, and I had severely strained my stomach muscles a few days before using an "abdominal wheel" my son had recommended. Stomach muscles are surprisingly necessary in many tasks. I discovered they are critical in getting up when you are wearing skis. I spent a good 5 minutes trying, and finally managed to wrench my body up. Not without some giggles and rolled eyes from my helpful teenager watching me, I might add.

"Wow," I said panting, worn out from the effort, "What if I fell down and no one was around? I really almost could NOT get up."
"You could take off your skis," suggested Asherel.

I blinked at her, mouth open. Then I snapped it shut.
"Oh...yes...I didn't think of that."

This is a good suggestion, literally, and metaphorically. There are many times in life, barreled over by impossible circumstances that we just cannot get up. We struggle and strain to manage to rise while encumbered by the things that dragged us down in the first place. There is a time when one needs to just "take off your skis". Lay your troubles aside momentarily, the burdens that are too heavy or unwieldy to bear, and it is much easier to get back up. You can always put the skis back on, once you regain your footing.

There are several episodes in the Bible when heroes cry out, "the burden is too heavy, I cannot handle it anymore, I cannot get up again!" In nearly every case, God doesn't remove the circumstances. But He does help. He urges rest, and often sends a friend. Metaphorically, He helps us take off our skis, so we can get back up. And then the hero is reinvigorated, and puts the skis back on for the rest of the trail alongside the friends God has sent. Respite is sometimes necessary, and if we can't get off our skis ourselves, God or an emissary will unlatch the bindings.

"It would have been much easier if I had taken off my skis," I admitted to Asherel, "You might have made that suggestion a little sooner...."
She shook her head, and I followed her down the mountain.

Numbers 11:14-17 (NIV)
I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. [15] If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me---if I have found favor in your eyes---and do not let me face my own ruin.” [16] The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. [17] I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.




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