Falling Short

Recently Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting was caught out one run short of achieving an amazing record of scoring two centuries in 4 consecutive test matches. The news headline read “Falling Short”. How disappointing for Ponting, the Australian side, and viewers everywhere to see him miss out on another great rung of success by such a close margin. Dismay and discouragement swept over the country (sort of) and it made front page news that Ponting had been “robbed” of this achievement.

I don’t have any great sporting feats or failures to boast about, but I do often feel that sense of dismay and discouragement when things don’t go the way I planned. Do you ever hear it said or even feel in your own heart those little phrases, “I deserve more”, “I deserve better”, “This wasn’t how life was meant to be”.

You know what, this ISN’T how life was meant to be. When sin entered in the garden of Eden, life as Adam and Eve knew it changed drastically. Instead of a close fellowship with God they were separated from Him. Instead of the peace and harmony of the garden people would forever have to fight against the declining natural order of the world and all the death and destruction that would bring.

But through Jesus we look forward to the day when we can walk that closely with God again.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
John 14:1-4 NIV

And here on earth, we must remember that this ISN’T what life was meant to be. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23-24 NIV) and all the achievements, success, approval, relationships, in this world will never measure up to what God can offer in a personal relationship with Him. It will always fall short because that’s not what life is meant for.

We are looking forward to a place and time where all things will be made right. And until then, amidst those times of dismay and discouragement because of the unfairness of life, come to Him in worship of who He is and only then will we experience the peace and fulfillment we long for.

3 Responses to Falling Short
  1. Timmy
    January 13, 2009 | 4:48 pm

    What a nice little post. That verse from the Gospel of John is beautiful; It is so comforting. Especially that last line spoken by Jesus, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” He tells us that we have the power, and that we have that power because He has given it to us. It is all up to us, to acknowledge the splendor or Our King, or not. What’s even better, in our “troubled” times, than realizing that we have a Savior is seeing all of the opportunity these “troubles” bring. Our sins actually offer OPPORTUNITY. Isn’t that amazing? While it is possible and much much much more desirable to seize that opportunity WITHOUT SINNING, it is not impossible to do so once we have “fallen short”. This is the way that Jesus was speaking of. Through Him, our sins can bring us closer to God. What a wonderful design. It is unfortunate that Adam and did what they did, but it would have happened sooner or later right? I’m quite sure that when God made us less than perfect(otherwise we would simply be copies of himself), He knew what we were capable of.
    http://patienceloveandpleasure.blogspot.com/

  2. Kiwi! | TheHotMovies.Info
    January 14, 2009 | 5:18 am

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  3. Susan (5minutesformom)
    January 15, 2009 | 12:08 pm

    Thanks for this important reminder!