Pulling Over

We're all human.

It's a fact of life that on some days we can be messy, emotional and unfair. As hard as we might try to stick close to the straight and narrow path, sometimes we drift. And then there are times where we stick a certain finger in the air and run off of it. ;)

Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to stay at the top of your game, the harder it becomes to focus and the easier it is to fall? Our heads become so clouded with all of that pressure that eventually we stop fighting, if only for a chance to catch our breaths again.

And it's funny -- when you do stop pressing onward, when you do give up, for a while things feel better ... that is, until you remember that it only came about because you lowered your standards for yourself.

The good news is that no matter the circumstance, mercy is so easy to find and never refused as long as we really want to change. I once joked in confession that it was like hitting the reset button, but I was corrected there: it's not a reset, it's moving forward knowing what our strengths and weaknesses are, but not allowing them to pull us off the road again so easily. We're not expected to never fail ... only to get up again, and keep getting up, when we do.

Confessing it all is letting go of those bonds of secrecy, fear and shame, and celebrating the fact that although we did fall short, we can always come back again. :) It's a beautiful thing.