Falling Down, Looking Up, Laughing All the Way

I admit it.  I'm one of those people.  One of those people who laughs when someone falls down.  I know. It's not nice, but, in all fairness, I laugh just as hard at myself when I fall down.  There is just something about it that cracks me up.  I'm the reason AFV will be in syndication for years to come.  It is always funny.  Just the other night as my mom and I left the first night of Flavour Conference, I fell as we were going to the car.  I had just shared in my message that night that I'm accident prone, and I fell before I made it to the car.  And, yes, I laughed...for a while. It was extra funny because I had just talked about it to a room full of women, but it would have been funny if it had just been a regular Thursday. 

Like anyone else, I want to present myself well.  I want to make a good impression and generally like to imagine that I'm thought of as poised and well put together.  Sometimes, that is who I really am, but just as often, I'm the girl who trips and falls on her rear end. Why? I think it is one of the many ways God keeps me humble.  I mean, think about the timing of Thursday's fall.  What could be more dangerous to my pride than standing on a stage and having hundreds of people listening just to me? Not much for a girl who liked being the center of attention from birth,...and the delivery room was all about me.  Seems like the perfect time to me for God to make sure I'm knocked on my tail in my pretty white pants within the hour! Just in case I was about to forget for a second who the evening was really about, I remember I'm Janay, the girl who trips over nothing and falls down.  He is the God of the universe.  

For this balance from the Lord, I'm truly thankful.  I want to please God and live according to His will.  I want to keep Jesus and the spreading of the gospel first in my life.  I want to be the vessel He uses, and not the distraction He must remove.  I want to be a part of the kingdom work for as long as He will let me.  I want all of that knowing that I'm undeserving, unworthy, and unfinished.  The miracle of grace is that God can and will use me in spite of me, even if that means letting me stumble on my rear a few times to make sure I keep looking up.  I'm thankful for His grace, His gifts, and His plan to use me, so I laugh when I fall down. Then I get up, brush myself off, and look up to see which way He's pointing next.