Skylar's Blog & Podcast

Romans 5:2; 14:4

Where are my seniors at? Pretty soon you will be going through one of the most exciting times of your lives: graduation! It's a great time, believe you me. All the friends and family around you, all the presents being brought to you. School is finally going to pay off! I can remember my graduation like it was yesterday. I can remember all of my friends walking across that stage. Seeing them simply walk, standing tall, being honored for their hard work for 14 (I count preschool) or, for some, 18 years...just kidding, hopefully. Anyways, back to graduation, you could see the sense of accomplishment in all of my friends. Then came my turn to walk across that stage, a side note: before the ceremony I was joking with a close friend that she was going to trip and fall while walking across the stage...can you guess what happened?After they called my name something popped in my head and I became distracted for a split second and that was all it took for me to miss a step and fall flat on my face in front of all my family, friends, and their family.

There is something unusually humiliating about falling, even if it's not in front of a whole bunch of people. Imagine for a second, you're walking by yourself around a park and all of a sudden you trip and fall; remember, no one is watching, are you embarrassed? Maybe you wouldn't, but I would be. It is much more satisfying to be standing, walking straight and tall somewhere. All of that is to say this: we would rather be standing than falling.

The verses I gave you at the top are some of my favorite. Read Romans 5:2 first. There's a phrase that I have remembered since my days in college: "...this grace in which we stand." What does that mean? It means grace is the only stable ground we can stand on. Have you ever tried to stand on a trampoline while everyone else is jumping as high as they can? How about this; have you ever tried to stand on one of those exercise balls? If you haven't try it, and remember this when you do: anything else we try and stand on, your friends, your family, your success in school, your success in sports, how good you are, is just like that. You are in a constant state of adjusting, leaning one way and then the other, not knowing where you're going to have to go next. Standing on these things is unpredictable, unsafe, and unhealthy. Grace is our only firm foundation. It is standing on a rock: steady, firm, and never moving. This means we stand our friendships, our school, our family, and anything else on grace, God's grace!

That last verse I gave you is from Romans 14: 4. Reread that last part: "And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand." It seems obvious now that grace is what we should rest on, but in actuality it's very hard for us. We do not inherently desire to rest in God's grace. We would rather try and do it ourself. We would rather stand on the edge of a cliff on a patch of sod than on the firm rock God has offered. God knows this, and because of that He takes the initiative and He is the one who makes us stand. He puts it in our heart to trust Him and to desire His grace, and then, after all of that, He is the one who makes us stand. He is the one who picks us up, sits us where we always wanted to be, and holds us up. That is a good God. That is our God.