“Don’t be discouraged, the Lord will be with you wherever
you go." ~ Joshua 1:9
Alone on the park bench, he guzzled
liquid from a brown bag and muttered something to himself. At a time he should have been at work, he
wasn’t.
That was the root of all his problems.
While the sky was beautifully clear, Daryl’s luck (and mood)
had soured. He’d recently been laid off
from his job. ‘Downsizing’ they called
it. And now, depression gripped him like
a boa constrictor; paralyzing him with an odd combination of the sadness, fear
and indifference. There was seemingly no
hope for things ever feeling better; nothing seemed worth living for.
A pigeon waddled toward him, hoping there’d be a scrap of
something from the brown bag. But what
James was drinking, the pigeon would have refused. A fog of despair swirled around him,
leaving him in a gloomy mist.
A few dozen yards away, a little girl’s mom was trying to
teach her to ride a bike without training wheels. Her strawberry curls and impish grin reminded
him of his own daughter years before.
Balancing on two wheels is a pretty improbable thing for
anyone to do, much less a seven-year-old. The kid was failing miserably – but she kept
at it. Daryl wondered how many Barney Band-Aids it would take to patch this little one back together.
She’d climb on, pedal about five feet and tumble over into
the soft grass. But instead of moping
about it, the kid picked up the bike and tried again . . . and again, balancing
a few more seconds each time before falling . . . again. Finally about an hour later, the girl
pedaled around the park and back to her mom (where she promptly fell over once
again).
Daryl tossed his bag aside and walked over to the triumphant
girl and her mom. “I’ve been watching
you, young lady. Great job!”
The little girl adjusted her bike helmet and said, “Thanks.” Then she continued in a completely different
voice: “I didn’t quit. I could’ve laid there in the grass feeling
sorry for myself, but I would’ve missed a lifetime of adventures. I didn’t quit. You shouldn’t either.”
Daryl was stunned by her comment. “How’d she know?” Daryl looked back at the bench and the bag
and tried to clear his head. His desperate
eyes watered as he looked at the kid who seemed to have no fear of failure.
Kids are like that - they try things. They experiment. They fail and then learn from
it. Adults are so cautious. Then he realized an undeniable truth: “Falling
down is part of life. Getting back up is
living!”
He thanked the little girl and her Mom again and walked back
home to “get back on his bike!”
Heavenly Father, everyday trials can be
discouraging. Remind us that our
strength doesn’t come from ourselves, but from You. Don’t allow us to be defeated by our
problems, but encouraged by our dreams. Amen
