Hope for the Clumsy

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.     Jude 24-25 ESV

I am one of those special people who can trip over my own two feet, or over nothing at all; I can fall up the stairs; I can break a nail just opening a door or getting dressed.  I constantly have a bruise somewhere on my body that I don't actually recall getting, but since I bump into things all the time, I am never really surprised.  (I love the idea of going to Pier 1 to shop, but that store inspires great fear and trepidation in my heart because there's just too much breakable stuff in there!  You can imagine the anxiety I experienced a few months back when I was working for an inventory company and I was assigned to a Pier 1 event!)  Not only that, but I can even manage to choke on air on a fairly regular basis.  And I literally just dropped the laptop that I'm working on!

Ironically, my name means "full of grace".  I know, huh?  I've always been pretty amused by that too!  I'm about as "grace-challenged" as they come!

But not only am I physically clumsy, I am a social/emotional/mental/spiritual klutz as well.  I don't really enjoy social settings as I have a knack saying stupid things.  In my mind, I am terribly funny, but somehow others don't always find my anecdotes all that amusing.  Put me in a place where I need to make small talk, and I will leave beating myself up over the dumb and awkward things that came out of my mouth.  I will have a long mental list of clever and/or witty things I could/should have said, but which will never be vocalized.

I think that's why Jude's simple closing spoke to me so profoundly this morning:  Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling...

Wow!  I know what a big job it is to keep ME from stumbling!  To think that I serve a God who is able to keep me from stumbling... Well, it just means that there is hope!  Because He is able to present me blameless...  My God is big enough to handle not just my physical clumsiness, but all of it!  He doesn't hold against me the times I've misstepped OR the times I've misspoken!   He is bigger than all that.  

And the Scripture says that it gives Him great joy...  He is able to keep me from stumbling.  He is able to present me blameless.  And He does so with joy!  That is a truly encouraging thought for this klutz today!

Now, I'm sure you are not nearly as clumsy as I am, but I hope you will still find encouragement in Jude's words today: our God is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy...!

.. Just a thought...