What To Do When You Step In It

Life is filled with ups and downs which means sometimes you are going to step in it. Let me explain, I take my dogs out walking of the morning. Normal dogs use the grass, but we don’t have normal dogs. Ours use the pavement, so I go behind them serving as the cleanup crew. A few days ago I walked them, they did their business and before I could do the cleanup there were two runners that came by the house. When I went down to do my owner’s duty, guess what? One of the runners had stepped right in you know what. He left his foot prints all the way up the road. I’m sure he did not mean to do this, yet it happened.  Maybe he was overwhelmed and could not see what was in front of him or preoccupied and just didn’t notice. He may have been engaged in conversation with his wife; maybe they were fussing. Possibly he was exhausted and his steps were not firmly planted or  he may have been bumped by his running companion. Yet, another possibility is that he may have been too presumptuous, saying “my stride is long enough I can step over this.” I may never know why he made the mistake but I’m sure when he got back home he was not a happy camper. He either trashed those running shoes or got out the Lysol and started doing some cleaning of his own. The point is he stepped in it and so do we. That’s why our life demands grace.  I do know this was not his first run and most likely would not be his last. Also, I know that if you run long enough it will happen to you. So what do we do when it happens? Well as I mentioned earlier there’s some clean-up that is required. In addition there is the decision to be more observant. This runner may have said, “This is not going to make me quit but next time I’ll watch closer, especially when I get near that preacher’s house.” But the most important thing we can do is continue running. The race is not over just because we step in it.  That’s where grace comes in.  It’s the detergent that washes us and the energy that encourages us to continue.  You may have stepped in it, but life is not over.  Get a grip on grace and finish the race.