Stumbling is Not Funny

    Did you know it is your job to make the paths of others straight and stumbling block free as much as is humanly possible?  It is a serious matter to hinder someone from entering the kingdom of God.  I have trouble with some of American's Funniest Home Videos because it looks like to me that when they fall that they may be seriously hurt. There is nothing funny about someone being seriously hurt. We knew the Three Stooges were playing and that the Coyote always puffed back up after being flattened. But, as I grew older I saw people fall down never to rise again. I also saw people trip and fall to sustain injuries from which they never recovered. I kept waiting for them to puff back up, but they never did.

There are five chapters of red letters at the end of John (13-17) spoken with a very specific aim in mind. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling." (16:1) Jesus mentioned them in His prayer in John 17 saying, "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Thy name which Thou hast given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled." (17:12)  Jesus took his job of protection seriously.

Have you ever gingerly taken an older person's arm as they walk across a parking lot to help stabilize them so they don't take a tumble? There is something satisfying about them being safely seated in their car. Did you know it is not enough to not trip a blind man as he walks by? It is my job to help the blind man get to where he is going. It not enough not to push a child down as they play on the playground. I am to watch over them and make sure they can get up and down the slide without landing on their head. We are all going somewhere. But, we will not get there if we fall. How can we casually walk by stumbling people and not reach out a hand to stabilize them? How can we think it funny when a drunk man falls down? 

John was great because he spent his short life removing rocks from the path of the King. He lost his head for his efforts. He was trying to make it easy for people to reach Jesus and for Jesus to reach people. That is our job. And, God forbid that they stumble over us and never reach Him because we got in the way!  I am so thankful for all the folks who made my path easier and not harder. I forgive those who knowingly or unknowingly tripped me up. But, praise God I am still standing and making my way along the path. If you want to help me get to heaven then join me on the path. But, if you are just going to make my way harder, please don't bother.