Five-minute Friday: Fall(ing)

Friends, I've been so afraid of falling.

Falling short of expectations, dreams, potential.

Falling out of grace, into judgment.

Falling in love.

Falling out of love - or being fallen out of love with.

Falling forward, in faith, in the dark, off the proverbial Cliff.

Falling apart, in a hundred shards of broken glass.

Falling into someone's arms.
 
Of prayers falling flat and lifeless. 

But I've been there, in all these places of falling, and I see now, falling is all about facing fear.  

Fear of failure, rejection, heartbreak.  Fear of not being caught, of smacking hard into the ground.  Fear of never recovering all those shattered pieces.  Fear of not being heard, of not mattering, of not being good enough or faith-filled enough.  Fear of wounding the ones I love, of being wounded by them - of never really loving well. 

And I've seen, that falling is where the weak can begin to know strength and those who thought they were strong can know their weakness.  

In falling, we can know flying - and we can know the taste of the earth caked on our lips.  And the tenderness of God picking us up off the ground, cleaning and binding our wounds, kissing pieces back together.  

photo credit

The only place I have ever been truly comfortable falling face down is at the feet of Jesus, pouring out my heart, in all its brokenness and attempts at loving the Divine.

And maybe, this is where our falling begins and ends, so that we can face the fears and know that we are still held.  

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Linking up with Lisa Jo.  

I rarely follow the "five minute" part of this exercise, and maybe I need to fall into that (hehe) a few more times, to get myself in the groove.  But for now, giving myself a few more minutes to follow where the prompt leads is working well for me.  Thanks for being here, friends.  Peace and grace to you, in all the steps of your journey.