Falling Down and Getting Up

I always find watching little kids run around interesting, because they have this uncanny ability to trip and fall flat on their faces, then get right back up and keep running around laughing their heads off, as though nothing happened (at this point, the physics nerds will start explaining all the reasons why this happens, which all makes sense). Then, I'll watch almost any pro-sports player fall down (for any reason) and spend 10+ minutes lying senseless on the ground. A dichotomy that I find very interesting.

The more I've thought about this, the more interesting lessons that I've drawn from it, in a mental and spiritual sense. A child, for the most part, is able to fall down and get right back up because nothing serious has happened as a result of that fall. An athlete, however, often falls down due to something rather impacting (see what I did there, huh?), and can have some more serious consequences.

Our life, our mentality, and our spirituality can be a lot like that, and I think it's something that we need to consider and take into account, for those around us and for ourselves. When someone is living a good, wholesome, righteous life, mistakes that they make can often be not so serious. Like a little child, they can get right back up and keep on going without a second thought. Sometimes it's more serious, and they get a skinned knee that slows them down for a while. But typically, such persons are usually up and going again within a very short time.

Those who are in different situations, however, living lives that are not full of good thing, or that are unrighteous, or even are in hard situations regardless of their personal choices, such as depression or a rough family setting, may get knocked down and have a hard time getting up. Oftentimes the blow that knocks them over is harsh, and the results can be very painful and difficult to deal with. They don't get up right away, because it's hard to get back up when you feel like you've been run over by a tank.

What I think is worth thinking on and focusing on, however, is how we, both individually and as a society, react to those who are struggling to get back up, or who are even still lying down on life's playing field, after suffering a hard blow. We may not have seen the last 100 times this person has been knocked down, the injuries they've suffered, the pain they feel, and the discouragement that is taking a strong hold of their lives. We may not understand why they don't want to get up anymore, or why they can't just bounce back and keep on going. Sometimes we don't see why "toughening up" or "manning up" doesn't work for them.

As seriously, sometimes we don't see it for ourselves, about ourselves. We fall down, and the world expects us to get up and get going again right away, but when we try, we slip and fall, or get bowled over again. We don't feel like getting up, but the pressure from those around us, and from ourselves, drives us to keep trying, even when we shouldn't try to get up so fast. Sometimes we need to lie down for a few minutes, rest up, recover our strength, and make sure we haven't suffered any severe injuries. And when we have been hurt, we should take time to heal. Athletes go off the field when they get hurt, and sometimes we need to get off the field when we get hurt.

The point here is that we all need to be a little more sensitive to those around us, to understand what they are feeling and how they are dealing with it. Not everyone can get right back up and keep going. Sometimes people are good at faking it, for many reasons. We shouldn't be giving them an extra reason to fake it. We should be the ones helping them off the field, if they need it, or pulling them back to their feet, or maybe even just handing them a bottle of water and making idle conversation while they recover for a few minutes. Let us all try to understand a little more, help a little more, and discourage a little less. After all, we all fall down.