Falling and Laughing

Okay, so we’ve all done it. We’ve seen someone stumble and either fall or almost fall. And, without fail there’s someone that finds that funny. I will raise my hand because I am one of them. I don’t know why, but watching somebody who is clumsy almost fall is an entertaining part of life. And now that I’ve lured you into reading this post by talking about that I’m going to drop in one of my favorite scriptures about stumbling…

Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73:1-3

I love this scripture. It is funny to me because I imagine myself literally being close to falling because I am not watching the path that God has me on. I am overtaken with watching how good it appears that the ‘evildoers’ have it. They have no regard for doing good or being good. They have no regard for life beyond this life because the target is enjoying their best life now. In the words of Ray Charles, “Let the good times roll.” They’re not facing any of the problems that I’m facing (seemingly). They have all that a person could want out of life, the quintessential American dream even. The writer of that Psalm goes on to say just that. But, in the end he realizes that as long as God is in control of the universe, it is he, not us or the wicked that will have the last laugh.

The Psalmist wraps it up in this way.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works. Psalm 73:27-28

In the end, it’s all about this. We have one life to live here and “then the judgment” as the writer of Hebrews puts it. So, it’s important that every person that follows Christ view life through a lens of eternity. That’s all that really matters. I had a friend tell me today that it seems that all of my facebook statuses bend toward drawing people to Christ. And, my response was simple. But, that’s all that really matters. What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul? I mean really now, what good is that?