We learn pretty early in life that falling down is OK. Toddling toward dad in the front room in search of balance, you fall to the floor. Since the floor isn’t that far anyway, down you go and, then, with both hands pushing up awkwardly and your legs maneuvering for the strength to go top-side again, you find yourself standing. Weaving to and fro you rush into dad’s waiting arms, the first of many successive falls and rises in your life.
There is a great mystery here. Why would I fall down and risk another fall by trying to get up? Because that’s what life is. Through trial and error, we learn how to get up. Our sins are falls. It is God’s love that calls us to get up and walk again. Dying and rising with Christ is real.
Recent research shows that suicides are up, way up among young people. Clinical depression is creeping through our society like a viral culture gone wild. Young people are technologically more competent than ever before. Yet, in general, the I-generation has no idea of what it was like to have face-to-face relationships. They don’t usually greet an aunt or uncle with a generous kiss; or, even shake hands with a friend or acquaintance. They have little experience with the consoling touch of friends. There is no one to encourage them to get up after falling into personal sin; no one to tell them that human weakness is part of the human condition. No one to look into their eyes and tell them: “Courage, He has overcome the world.”
Of course, millennials and the x-generation are part of this contagion of hopelessness, too. We simply must encourage one another in face-to-face encounter.
We Christians have to go out and preach the gospel and not with words only. Our American society is sick with denial and cover-up of our sins. It’s a Christian’s job to help resurrect individuals who have fallen. There is no one else to say, by God’s grace, “Get up! Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”