A little hill and pride.

I flung open the door and let the bright morning sunshine beam on my face. I smiled and took a breath of that cooler air. I took a step out and grabbed my longboard, my trusty steed, convinced to conquer the pavement of our new neighborhood.

 

I placed the bamboo board on the sidewalk and lifted my head up and gazed down the hill. I guarded the sun with my left hand, almost looking like I was saluting the horizon. I stepped on the board and pushed off with one great push.

 

I then placed the foot back on the front of the board and guided myself to and fro. I smiled and felt the wind brush against my face.

 

A man drove by, staring at me almost in disbelief that a girl could skateboard. I puffed up with pride and smiled at him.

 

Slowly the road began to decline, and the board began to increase in speed. I didn’t panic at first, liking the new fast past. I smiled and kept my straight path, enjoying the challenge.

 

But suddenly I began to realize that the pace was in fact, increasing ever more. I slightly had a deep feeling in my gut that I was about to break my arm or worse, crack open my skull and die.

 

Slightly over exaggerated, but I was thinking it.

Clearly I thought that I had tamed this wild thing, but I was hanging on for dear life and about to get thrown off.

 

I began to run through case scenarios of how I was about to get off of this run away mustang. I thought maybe I would just hope the speed would decrease at the end of the hill and would come to a stop, but I couldn’t take the speed much longer. I then thought that maybe I can do what I always do and jump off and let the board go.

 

I braced myself and jumped.

 

Next thing I know I see the sun fly above me and the ground greeted me with its hard rocky asphalt.

 

I lied there on the ground, feeling the rush of random amounts of pain shoot through my left side. I gazed at the blue sky, not moving. Wondering if I could move.

 

Did I die?

 

I sat up and saw my board lying in the grass. I sighed and pulled myself off the ground. I felt all the blood rush, and felt woozy. I then realized that I was about to pass out in the middle of the street.

 

“Oh crap.” I muttered under my breath as I leaned over and put my head between my knees.

 

I waited a while and as I lifted my hand I noticed dark red stains where my hand had been. I looked at my hand and realized that parts of skin on my palm where missing. My gaze moved down my arm to my elbow where a bright red scrap was. I winced and walked over to my board. I picked it up and hobbled home.

 

I sadly placed the board on the stone bench at the front door, and came inside the house.

My dog wagged her tail, she strangely had a concerned way about her. I assured her I was okay. I was just stupid.

 

I sat down on the couch, too tired to actually get up and tend to my wounds. I sat thought through my stupidity.

 

I think that sometimes we need a little fall to remember that we aren’t all that we make ourselves out to be.

 

I know that Im not as cool as I wish I was. That even though I can make it from my apartment to my class, doesn’t mean Im the great asphalt surfer I wanted to be. That no matter how many times I go to the coffee shop that I cant know everyone there. It doesn’t matter how much music that I buy on iTunes, that it never really will satisfy me.

 

That I need a lot of times I need to get knocked off my feet to realized that all I need is Him. That no matter how cool I try to be, its not what matters in the end. That it will fade in the end and chances are people will figure the real me out and realize Im not so great.

 

But I think instead Christ should be the one people see in me, that when people really do find me out they see Him. That when I am proud, I do so in Christ. Not because of some image I try to paint, or some new thing I have done.

I just sometimes need to admit that I am human, and that I struggle with pride.

But Praise Jesus for those hills that we fall down. So He can pull us back up.