I have endured many physical ailments, including winning the battle against a fairly rare cancer called myxofibrosarcoma, endured colon cancer, and suffered a bad back that has plagued generations of my family. One ailment for which I have never sought treatment is one that the doctors found during a pre-surgical evaluation four years ago. I have spinal stenosis in my neck, which makes it hard to stay vertical.
I used to describe it as being dizzy, but it is not dizziness, not vertigo, not like an ear infection, not like getting out of a chair too quickly. I am simply not able to stay completely upright at times, and it is affected by the position of my neck and head. Consequently, I am often told that I walk funny, with my head held a certain way and tiny little shuffles instead of long, manly strides. It’s sometimes difficult to hold my head up normally. It’s impossible to sit in a straight-back chair if I cannot slouch. I lose my footing and fall.
I say all that to say this, though the writer of the 94th Psalm spoke metaphorically, I have no problem thinking about slipping and falling literally. My wife knows the injuries I’ve suffered and has confessed that she fully expects me to fall and crack my skull, and bleed-out long before cancer ever takes me.
Either way… No matter how I meet my Maker, I am ready. His unfailing love has caught me (literally and metaphorically) so often when I fall that I have no doubt His love will catch me at that final fall.
Psalm 94:17-18 NIV –
When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought me joy.