Swinging

I was watching my girls swinging today and it got me to thinking. What goes up must come down. It's a law of nature. None of us is immune. None of us escapes the pull of gravity. Baby Lu is still getting used to the concept of swinging. Just when she's flying high with a big smile on her face, her forward momentum comes to a stop and she starts falling backwards, unsure of what's happening. Then the smile returns as she rises on the other side.




Do you ever feel like that in life? Two steps forward, one step back? Just when you think you've got some momentum, you begin losing ground? What about your spiritual life? Just as we're all under the physical law of gravity, we all begin life under the spiritual law of sin. We're powerless to overcome it. We can no more conquer sin than we can gravity. Christ changes that for us and in Him we can overcome sin, since He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).


We're still swinging, though. We have our ups and our downs. Paul did. Peter did. I suppose that should make us feel better. Peter says, "Do not think it strange, this fiery trial that is before you." Paul gloried in his infirmities, that Christ might be magnified in his weakness.



I just love feeling the wind in my hair! I love forward momentum! I do not like standing still! And I hate going backwards! But, the great thing about swinging is, for each arc of the swing, there are two ups for every down. I know in my life I've had many more ups than downs. In fact, the ups have been innumerable so that I tend not to even keep track of them, whereas, the downs have been few and far between. Somehow the downs get remembered, though. Why is that?

Keep in mind, as long as you're swinging, a down will always follow an up. Be encouraged! But on the bright side, an up will always follow a down, so hang in there! And if you're a Christian, no matter how much of your life seems to be lived in the "downs", remember that all eternity in the presence of Christ will be an "up", unlike any you've known. I think this is what Paul meant when he said that "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom 8:18) And again in 2 Corin 4:17 when he referred to his many trials and persecutions as "light affliction, which is but for a moment" that "is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

And I'm grateful that the Lord is able to turn even my downs into ups for His glory! So I keep swinging, trying to keep better track of my many ups, trying to more fully enjoy the wind in my hair and the forward movement He gives me, and remembering during the downswing that this is not a surprise to God, that it's not an anomaly, and that another up will follow, whether in this life or the next.