Why Do We Fall?

Recently I re-watched the movie Batman Begins, obviously in connection to the recent sequel. This post will not be a review on either of those excellent movies, but rather a comment on a line from the first.

In a style similar to Uncle Ben's famous power/responsibility phrase, Bruce Wayne is inspired by a quote from his father of which Alfred later reminds him. The line is, "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up."

This is one of my favorite lines from the movie, but thinking about it I realized that it is only half true. We do fall in order to learn a lesson, but are we learning to pick ourselves up?

This summer I worked at a summer camp as a counselor. It seems like a job that is all fun and games, but anyone who has counseled before knows that a full summer of 24-hour days with kids is both physically and spiritually draining. We are responsible for the physical safety, fun, and spiritual growth of all of our campers. And every week seemed to be a struggle for at least one counselor. One would get a concussion, another would become ill, another would have a cabin of rebellious or unruly kids. It got to the point where I would ask "Why?" It seemed like camp was hard enough without all of these difficulties.

But this summer I got closer to God than I have ever been. I was forced to develop better devotions and more honest prayer time, because without that connection with God, I would have collapsed. And just when I thought I knew what I was doing and began to be confident in my counseling abilities, God would send another rough week of camp. I soon realized I could do nothing without God.

After this experience I would like to reword Mr. Wayne's famous phrase. Why do we fall? So we stop trying to pick ourselves up and reach out a hand for God. God breaks us so He can put us back together. He puts us through hard times to force us closer to Him.

At first glance this seems barbaric. God delights in knocking us down just to remind us how much we need him? This seems more like the actions of a petty Greek god than a perfect Lord of Creation.

But the reason God does this is not pride. God delights in His own glory, yes. In a man this would be pride. But God cannot be prideful, one reason being that He actually deserves glory, unlike anyone else. Another reason is that God's desire for praise and recognition is not for His own benefit, but ours. God knows what is best, and out of love always does what is best for us.

And God knows that we will never be truly happy unless we realize our relationship to Him. The hard times He sends to break us are merely so we do not try to stand against even greater storms. He allows us to stop trying to stand up on our own feeble feet and finally lean on the only One who can hold us up.