Thursday, January 20, 2011

Pity the man who falls.


I fell this week. I fell walking across a snowy parking lot holding two pizzas in one hand and a bag with a salad and breadsticks in another. I don’t think I broke anything but I am little sore. Worse though I’m little embarrassed. I’m embarrassed because a friend of mine saw me fall. Fortunately he didn’t video tape it so there is no chance that it will be put on YouTube for the world to see, like the video of the women who walked into a fountain in while texting.

Fortunately my friend, rather than laugh at me, even though I know he wanted to, came over and gave me a hand up. It reminds me of the verse in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, “ 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: 10 If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

I have a friend and he’s fallen recently. He didn’t fall walking in the snow, he fell while walking through life. The question is who will pick him up? Some people are trying but others seem to not want to be bothered by him at all. They seem to think he should get up by himself or worse they don’t care if he ever gets up. They would rather just see him go away.

The sad thing is this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. The same thing happened to another friend of mine. Truth is he probably didn’t “deserve” to be helped up, but then which one of us does? Someday we are all going to “fall” and when we do who will pick us up? Maybe no one, unless we have been willing to humble ourselves enough to help others when they’ve fallen.

4 comments:

Debbie said...

I enjoyed this post. Experience a "fall" in our family, it saddened me how few people wanted to pick up. I am grateful for the few who did.

Kelly said...

Does it seem a bit strange that you're thankful that your fall won't show up on YouTube yet you used a picture of some poor fellow falling down who was probably just as embarassed? I just had to point that out, but I enjoyed this post very much.

dennis said...

Hey Kelly,

You are right. Hope I didn't add to anyone's embarrassment. At least they haven't identified him yet. Thanks for your comment

Sandra Wilkes said...

I'm always glad when special ones pick me up when I fall. Too often I take it for granted. Thanks.