"Give praise to the One who is able to keep you from falling into sin. He will bring you into his heavenly glory without any fault. He will bring you there with great joy." (Jude 1:24 NIRV)
When the lights came up on my daughters' dance recital two years ago, I sat in the audience, praying a two-word prayer over and over again: "Please God, please God, please God, please God..."
I knew something most everyone else didn't: my younger daughter had to strike and hold a tricky pose during that opening montage. A very tricky pose. A pose she'd fallen out of many times, including when she'd attempted it earlier that day. And when she'd tried it the night before at dress rehearsal.
Her pose was an elbow stand: essentially hoisting her entire body up and over her forearms. Her torso and legs were supposed to be elevated and curved so that her toes essentially hovered almost over her forehead. And she was doing this on a wooden cube from which falling off was a very real (and potentially injurious) possibility. And the costume she was wearing at the time had long, shiny, slippery sleeves which did not help her case with any sort of grip. And she was nervous.
So I prayed.
"Please God, please God, please God, please God..." Inherent in this was, "Please God, keep her from falling." Which He did. She got into position. She held her pose. Afterwards, as she danced, her beatific smile told a tale of triumph.
In real life, I often find myself trying to strike and hold a pose. A pose of faith, of wisdom, of patience, of endurance, of perseverance. Sometimes I'm not even sure what cube it is I'm balancing precariously on. Love, maybe, or commitment or hope. I only know I feel as if falling off is a very real possibility. I could falter in faith. I could make a foolish choice. I could lose my temper. I could slack off. I could quit the race.
In these moments, when I need the steadying hand of the One who is able to keep me from falling, sometimes the simplest supplication will do: "Please God, please God, please God, please God...."
And He reassures me, "I'm here. I won't let you fall. Hold your pose. Then do your dance."
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!