THE ART OF COMING DOWN

"And as they came down from the mountain..."

(Mk. 9:9)

A young preacher at a large Bible conference accened the steps to the platform to speak with great pomp. Afterward when descending he stumbled and fell down the steps, with all to see. An old minister on the front row rose and helped him up. As he did he whispered to him, "Son, if you had gone up the way you came down, you could have came down the way you went up."

Most all of us know how to go up but how few know the art of coming down. The test of a true servant of God is seen in the fact that he has power within himself to descend. Our dear Lord, our example, humbly came down from the height of heaven's glory to walk among the likes of us. To have remained on His Mount Zion would have not helped us.

Peter, like many of us, wanted to stay in his high position on the mount. But no one is ever helped while we are camped out on the third floor. Paul didn't help anyone while in the third heaven. Not until we are willing to come down will we be able to help those in dire need. An exalted position will never accomplish what a lowly one will. Big shots can't help little squirts!

My constant advice to one of my grandsons whom God is richly blessing is, "Stay low." As one of the first-century divines wrote, "The lowly man never falls; for whither should he fall who is already below all men."