On Grace and Safety Nets

They say being allowed to fail is the greatest motivator of success. The tight rope walker walks confidently along the narrowing rope, knowing in her being the net rests below, waiting to catch her with each bend and flow. 

She moves on steadily, because she may fall.

If she does, she will rise once more above them all.

Who do you need to serve as a net for today, tomorrow, or in the future? A moment that probably changed the course of my future in more ways than I realized came from a professor telling me on the brink of my destruction that it would be okay if I didn’t make it to the end of the school day or school month or school year. All that mattered was that me, myself, I, was still here. 

I pressed on because I knew that the net was there. I had been given permission and grace to fall. I had received the permission to give up on it all. And in that moment, I knew what to do. I would walk the tightrope because I knew, the fear that had hung over me was no longer there. The fear had vanished and my shoulders were bare. 

We allow fear to rest heavily on our shoulders when we and others do not allow us the grace to fall. When fear rests on our shoulders, the weight is often too heavy for us to walk the tightrope at all. 

In what ways do you need to allow your own self to fail? To put up the very real net to catch your own self?

In what ways do you need to be a net to someone else? Give someone else permission and grace to fail? 

God’s grace is new with each day. We are allowed to fail and it is okay. How does our grace need to be made new today?