Falling Down and Getting Up

There was a Nike commercial years ago featuring Michael Jordan — fourteen-time All-Star, five-time MVP, two Olympic gold medals. The camera follows him arriving at an arena, moving through the crowd with that easy, confident stride. And then you hear his voice:

"I have missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I have lost more than three hundred games. Twenty-six times I have been trusted to take the game-winning shot — and missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

That last line is worth some reflection. He didn't succeed in spite of the failures. The failures were part of how he got there.

The Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte once described what the church calls the perseverance of the saints — the conviction that God never gives up on us — in the most unglamorous terms imaginable. He said it was simply this: falling down and getting up, falling down and getting up, falling down and getting up — all the way to heaven.

Not a triumphant march. A stumble, a rise, a stumble, a rise. That is the shape of a faithful life.

Over the past few days, we've been reflecting on Jonah. His story contains one of the most quietly powerful lines in all of scripture. After everything — the running, the storm, the fish, the darkness — we read: "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time."

A second time. God came back. God always comes back.

Prayer: Loving God, we are grateful that you are not finished with us when we fail. Teach us the stubborn, unglamorous faithfulness of those who simply keep getting back up. Help us to hear from you again and again and again. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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