Life is Like a Playground

Nearly everyone has grown up with some time being spent on a playground. Swinging and seeing how far one can jump off, climbing the monkey bars, sliding down the slide and climbing back up it, playing lava monster, and playing in the bark, sand, and/or gravel. Amidst those experiences, it seems normal for one to have at least one bloody knee or elbow, and scraped up palms. It is a fact of life, that at some point in time, everyone has a fall where they become "broken" and must learn to get up and continue forward.


Lately, it seems as though I have been cold and distant from every one and every thing.

I was trying to protect myself from the pain that I was feeling from falling so many times on the playground of life. I put up walls that I had thought would prevent some, if not all, of the pain from hurting so much and tearing me apart. Instead, it did just the opposite. I felt like I became a monster, but very few knew.

It only seemed to continue, the more I felt like a monster deep down, the more I started to fall on the playground, over and over, never seeming to be able to stand up completely before falling back down again.

 

The pain of life was starting to wear me down and I needed a hero.

Just in time, a hero did save  me; Jesus saved me. He brought people into my life that have helped me to realize things, accept things, and work through things that I needed to work through. With God, I am loved, accepted, have value, have worth, have a purpose, a light to guide my way when it gets dark. "Though I may walk through the valley of shadow and death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me" Psalm 23:4.

I'm waking up and living. It is not easy as this world is full of decadent temptations; however, I am starting to really know what I believe. Paul calls us to be living sacrifices for the Lord. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God -- this  is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

For all the times that I fell on the playground and could not bring myself to get up, for various reasons, I am forgiven. Jesus sent His only son to save us all from all the times we've fallen and not gotten back up. Who we are in Christ is a new person, with a new perspective on this life we are living. We are treasured so very much and are forgiven of our wrong doings. 

"Therefore say: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.' "They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord." Ezekial 11:17-21. Though is it not easy to follow God wholeheartedly in this world filled with temptations that are vile and detestable in the eyes of God, I am seeking to create in myself a clean heart for God.

I cannot live the way I have been if I want to go somewhere with my life and be healthy in doing so. This process hasn't been easy by any means, but it will and is worthwhile. Although I may still fall every so often as I am only merely human and imperfect, I know that I will be stronger to keep getting back up and moving forward. I will do just that: continue forward.