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
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