Focus on Standing

I’ve never had to think about standing. It’s natural. Once you get the hang of it as a toddler, you generally never think about it again. You just do it.

That is, until it gets hard to do.

When my dizziness hit several years ago, I couldn’t stand without holding onto or leaning against something. Even now, if I’m in a big space, with a lot of people or commotion, I need something stable to steady me.

And because it’s become difficult to do, I’ve had to focus on something that use to be easy.

Standing for what’s true and right is not hard when it’s easy. But when it gets difficult, we MUST focus on it. Or we’ll fall.

I’ve struggled with exactly how to stand right now. I mean, what does it look like in day to day life? What do I do or not do? What do I say or not say?

As I was thinking about it, an incident from when I was in middle school came to my mind. I went to a public school my whole life and I can remember that the textbooks used to teach creation. Once I got into 7th-8th grade, evolution had started edging it’s way into the curriculum. I had a teacher that taught about evolution. I can remember coming home and telling my daddy about it. He went and talked to the principal and the teacher was given a slap on the wrist. The next day, he made sure to ~sarcastically~ point out that even if you didn’t believe in evolution, it was still interesting to learn about. He then asked the whole class, “None of us believe this, right? So I just want to make sure you don’t think that I believe what I’m teaching, but I’m gonna teach it anyway.” That makes a lot of sense, huh? I knew he knew it was me and my father who had complained and all I wanted to do was crawl under my desk. When it came time to study for the test, there were no study questions about creation. They were all surrounding the theory of evolution. I can remember asking my daddy what to do. He very adamantly and without hesitation said, “Well if it was me, I’d take the test but I’d make sure I put it in bold letters across the top ‘I BELIEVE THE GENESIS ACCOUNT.’” I can remember thinking how silly it sounded and wondering why I couldn’t just be like everybody else. The day of the test came and I flew through the answers. Each one felt like a betrayal and I just wanted to get it over with. I sat there forever after I was finished just staring at the front page of the test, heart pounding. I tried to convince myself that not writing anything was no big deal. It was just a test. It was just a teacher. They were just words. I was a young Christian, I’d only been saved maybe one or two years. But I remember being unable to stand up and turn that paper in without writing what I believed at the top of it. And so with a shaky hand I wrote ‘I believe the Genesis account’ at the top of my test.

After all this time I still remember the exact words. And I remember how I felt. Relieved. To know that in the end, despite how foolish it may have looked to everyone else, I stood for what I believed.

Some of you may read that now and laugh. I realize it’s such a small thing. But how far have our public schools gone now in making sure that evolution is taught as truth, and not just preference? So what good did my stand do? If it didn’t change anything and it didn’t help, why stand? Because it taught me how to. It made me unashamed of the choice I made to do right. That teacher may have laughed me to scorn when he saw those words on my paper. But he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt where I stood that day.

People are passionate about killing babies.
People are passionate about closing churches.
People are passionate about “protesting” racism.
People are passionate about equality.
People are passionate about making sure everyone wears a mask.

Where is the Christian’s passion to stand?
Where is the Christian’s passion at all?
Lost people are more excited to go to hell than Christians are about going to Heaven.
Their voices are loud. They are being heard.

Where are we?

This weekend down in Ft. Morgan, 20 people formed a human chain to try and rescue a swimmer that was caught in a riptide. It was valiant; it was brave. But because they were inexperienced rescue swimmers, the chain broke and a woman who was part of the chain lost her life. The rescue was unsuccessful.

We cannot join hands with the world and expect to win anyone to Christ. It just doesn’t work.

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord…” 2 Corinthians 6:17a

We need to stand. The ‘how’ might be different for each of us. But we need to do it. We need to get in God’s word, we need to hit our knees in prayer, we need to have the hard conversations with our children, to be the right examples to them. We need to stop sitting somewhere in the middle and make up our minds on where we stand. We need to show compassion. Kindness. Christ. And the thing is, we should’ve already been doing this. We shouldn’t have to tell people right now what we believe and where we stand and what we think. Our lives should’ve already been saying that. But it’s not too late to start now.

We need to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” 1 Peter 3:15

We need to “have compassion, making a difference:” Jude 1:22

And above all, we need to “take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13

Everybody in the world is taking a stand. But we must make sure that we are standing on what’s TRUE. And the only thing that’s true and will stand in a world of so much confusion and ever changing standards, is God’s word. Make sure that what you’re standing for matches up with that.

Let’s focus on standing, lest we fall.

I know I’ve shared this song before, but I couldn’t think of anything better to go with this post.

“If you stand alone, stand tall.”

I’ve seen it with my own eyes recently. When you stand tall, it might just give someone else the courage to do so, too.

“Stand Tall”
Words and Music by Faith York

https://youtu.be/6GugcR_gyw4