Sliding Away: Grateful for Tumbling Down the Stairs

Thirteen steps take our family from one level to another: Missing just one step should have ruined me — but it was a gift…

I was half-awake, tired, up late and rose early (at 4:20 a.m). I showered, checked email, got dressed and drank a cup of coffee.

Not wanting to wake my wife, I kept the lights out as I walked down the stairs carrying my iPad, my notebook and my empty coffee cup — surrounded by complete darkness.

I missed the final step — unintentionally — and my foot fell from the 12th step, past the 13th step to the hardwood landing. Everything tumbled down and hit the ground: Me, the iPad, the notebook and the coffee cup.

A loud hammering of human flesh, technology and paper accompanied everything. I again worried about waking my wife (one reason I chose to remain in this darkness and kept the lights out).

My leg throbbed. Not a good sign.

Neither the cup (empty) nor the iPad broke

My memory flashed back to a series of newspaper stories I’d written about people with severe head injuries who had been disabled for life (unable to walk or work, subject to hundreds of thousands of dollars of massive healthcare costs) because of one fall.

All because they fell down stairs.

I recalled my roommate at Michigan State, a football player whose brother and father played on the team before him. He got his big chance, was accepted, was playing on the big field, turned the wrong way on his ankle. And that was that. Redshirted, never to return to the team.

I must have some big scars, bruises, gashes or scratches, I figured.

But I was fine.

“God loves irrationally, exuberantly risking it all in order to find the one who wandered away. What good news: God does not love according to a strict justice on our terms, but loves in his own extravagant way,” — Bishop Robert Barron.

The last time I fell down stairs, my leg twisted and I wound up walking with a crutch for weeks. Lots of pain. Lots of ice packs. Not this time.

I was fine. No scars. No signs.

Disaster transforms into gift

When I told this story to my pal, Dr. Tom Graves, he marveled at the fact that I somehow decided to finish my coffee before going downstairs.

“What if your cup was full of hot coffee?” he asked. “Imagine what could have happened.”

That made me think of the famous McDonald’s lawsuit involving hot, spilled coffee. It made me think how totally unusual it was for me to finish my coffee before going down the stairs.

I never ever do that. I always keep some coffee in the cup for the journey.

But something made me finish that cup that one time.

“It’s funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’ for a little while,’’ — Jeff Bridges.

One slightly different step, more coffee in the cup, one small change in the details of this story, would have totally changed everything.

Instead, it’s the story of a disaster becoming a minor miracle, how everything literally fell into place in precisely the right way at precisely the right moment to keep me and my things safe.

How often do we experience such “near misses” where we realize how close we came to disaster only to be saved just in time? And then, after thanking God for sparing us, we let the moment pass and totally forget all about it?

Not this time: When we receive a gift, we should write a “Thank you” note. But where do you find the right and proper words? After a visit to Church:

“Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’’ (Isaiah 40: 3–5, NABRE)

Making mountains and building highways takes a lot of time

“God’s work in hearts takes a lot of time and sometimes it’s a bit of an ordeal,’’ Father Joe Campbell says. “It’s very easy to become impatient… God’s work in our hearts is not just a quick little fix. It’s tearing down the mountains of pride and sin, it’s filling in the valleys of desolation… the barriers to the Lord’s work.’’

So we pray and pray and wait and wonder what’s taking so long because watched pots rarely boil.

But other times, when we least expect it, we fall and He catches us. Or He allows us to fall in such a way that we learn a lesson but are spared most of the suffering.

So here it is: I’m writing this down so I don’t forget, so someone else knows hope is always there. And so the Great Author who inspires all the writers here on earth knows we read the stories He sends our way. And that we do our best to send back words of thanks.

“And I know a father who had a son. He longed to tell him all the reason for the things he’d done. He came a long way just to explain. He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping then he turned around and headed home again…God only knows. God makes His plan. The information’s unavailable to the mortal man. We work our jobs, collect our pay. Believe we’re gliding down the highway. When in fact we’re slip slidin’ away,” — Paul Simon

This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family, and fun.

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