God puts the fallen on their feet again and pushes the wicked into the ditch. Psalm 147:6 (MSG)
The Fallen – Heaven and Earth Series – Part 5
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
Verses like this can sometimes get us into dualistic mindsets: There are those who are wicked, and those who are not. The fallen will rise, the wicked will fall…
Hang on… read that again?
The fallen will rise, and the wicked will fall. Then the fallen will rise…
Proverbs 3:34 says, “He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.”
At any given time, at any given moment, I have the potential to be both proud and humble, a mocker and oppressed. In fact, when you look into criminal psychology, many offenders are broken, hurting people, who have been oppressed, to some degree, themselves.
My Psychologist told me over and over again that “hurting people, hurt people.”
It’s not quite as black and white as we would like to think.
I wonder what crime the criminal on the cross next to Jesus was being punished for? Was he a vile offender? How had he lived his life? Was he wicked?
All of that aside, after a vulnerable moment with Christ, he is assured that his demise would not be eternally final.
I can be prideful towards someone, and humble with someone else at the same time. I can treat the earth with disdain while treating my neighbor with respect; I can yell at my kids while being kind to a friend over text; I can forgive my brother while staying offended with my sister. I can follow the leading of God in one situation while I plow ahead paying him no heed on another.
The fallen? When you are down, and you know it, and you look up for help, he is there. When you’re blindly going about your ways, not caring about the consequences that your actions have on others, yourself or the earth, it always leads to brokenness. A fall, where if you look up for help…
We are the wicked that fall, and we are the fallen that get set right again.
Psalm 147:5 says, “Our Lord is great, with limitless strength; we’ll never comprehend what he knows and does.”
In the middle of this great mess of a world we’ve created, God’s limitless strength is at work. It knows what we can’t know and does what we cannot comprehend.
And His great work of strength is redemption.
For the fallen, the broken, the once proud and now humbled; the criminal, the hurt, the lonely, the oppressed and oppressor alike: Redemption is the end game for us all.
So what do we do with the scriptures around us – the sacred stories and self-truths – told in dark places with painful language?
“In our weakness, He is strong…” and with limitless strength, and with the grace that rescued us when we were down, we reach out. Don’t be afraid of the dark.
Light it up.
With Faith.
With Hope.
With Love.
The ultimate scripture, the most sacred story told, that seems hidden away from the world, but is woven so tightly that you need to get to the core of it all to see it, is the redemption story. The stars shine it out, the rocks cry it out, the wind whispers it into our hearts, the oceans pulsate with its beat, testifying of God’s hidden work that’s bursting to be unveiled by you.
Every day, for the rest of your life.
Over to you… Are you unveiling the redemption story? Leave us your comments below.
Go to Part 6 – Deep Darkness »
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