Friday, April 14, 2017

Rise And Fall



Each sport season ends with one victorious team that dispatched thirty or so others along the way. The winner gets the crown . . . or at least a trophy and rings along with media attention. Usually there is a parade and sometimes a trip to the White House. One or two of the series heroes might be featured on talk shows and magazine covers.

Happens for most every sport: football, basketball, hockey, baseball, only to begin again the next season. It reaches down into the collegiate and high school level, though usually not as extensive or dramatic.

Most of us with a Christian upbringing know the story of Jesus and his triumphant procession into Jerusalem. Folks lined the streets and laid down palm branches and cloaks covering the path. Incongruous to His triumphant procession was His ride: a donkey. Quite the contrast.

Here was a King, (though most everyone misunderstood what kind of King He was) riding a donkey. Not a horse. Not a throne carried on the shoulders of four body-builder types. A donkey.

And just as swiftly, the parade and the cheers and the palm branches were replaced by jeers and a whip and a crown of thorns. Instead of the cheering crowd, He was taken into custody in the dark of night by an armed mob. One day later, instead of being raised up on a throne, He was raised up on a cross. His hands and feet nailed to a cross and a lance pierced His side.

Not even one week from the great and grand triumphant procession He was put to death in a most inglorious way: on a hilltop nailed to a cross along with two thieves.

Quite the Fall, don’t you think?

Got me thinking . . .

Seems like more and more we see those who are on top Fall. Sometimes slowly over time. Sometimes by their own hands. Sometimes at the hands of others. All seem to Fall.

Young music artists fade as their brand of music changes with the taste of the listening public. Actors come and go. Athletes decline with age.

What disturbs me . . . what bothers me is that there are those among us who wait for the Fall to happen.  After the swift ascent, after the Rise, they wait and when the Fall takes place, there is a sneer and finger-pointing and an “I knew it would happen. I told you it would happen.”

I guess it would help if we remember that once on top, the only place to go is down.

And more importantly, no matter how great the man or woman, no matter how accomplished and gifted he or she may be, they, like we, are only human. Each of us are subject to decline because that’s the way we’re built. Each of us will have those moments when we Rise and those moments when we Fall.
Each of us!

And it isn’t the Fall that is necessarily bad, but rather not getting back up on one’s feet that is the failure. And more than that, it is the bystander, the onlooker, and perhaps “friends” who cheer and jeer as we Fall that hurts more than the Fall itself.

If we realize that each of us, all of us, will Fall at some point in our life, and if we support one another to lessen the hurt and the pain of the Fall, folks might do the same for you. So, are you ready to land after your Fall and Rise up once again? Your move! Something to think about . . .

Live Your Life, and Make A Difference!

To My Readers:

I just finished my fifth work of thriller/mystery fiction, Caught in a Web and it’s currently being edited. I’ll keep you posted as to when it will be published.

Please feel free to connect with me at:

Twitter at @jrlewisauthor

Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Joseph.Lewis.Author                       

Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Lewis/e/B01FWB9AOI/             

If you like Thriller/Mystery fiction, check out my novels:

Available on Amazon for .99 the Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they don’t know one another, the lives of FBI Agent Kelliher and two boys become interwoven with the same thread that Pete Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their lives are in jeopardy as each search for a way out. http://bit.ly/Taking-Lives-JLewis

Stolen Lives, Book One of the Lives Trilogy:
Two thirteen year old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they’ll end up like all the others- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. And the possibility exists that one of his team members might be involved. http://bit.ly/Stolen-Lives-JLewis

Shattered Lives, Book Two of the Lives Trilogy:
Six men escaped and are out for revenge. The boys, recently freed from captivity, are in danger and so are their families, but they don’t know it. The FBI has no clues, no leads, and nothing to go on and because of that, cannot protect them. http://bit.ly/Shattered-Lives-J-Lewis

Splintered Lives, Book Three of the Lives Trilogy:
It began in Arizona with death and it ends in Arizona in death. A 14 year old boy has a price on his head, but he and his family don’t know it. Their family vacation turns into a trip to hell. Out gunned and outnumbered, can this boy protect his father and brothers? Without knowing who these men are? Or how many there are? Or when they might come for him? http://bit.ly/Splintered-Lives-J-Lewis   

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Thank you for your comment. I welcome your thought. Joe