Sobering Lessons from Meriwether Lewis and the Lewis and Clark Expedition of Discovery

I just finished Stephen E. Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.

I don’t believe I’ve read anything about the Louisiana Purchase or the Lewis and Clark expedition since grade school. (Which of course was only a couple years after Lewis and Clark returned from their trip.)

Anyhow, I was amazed by the sheer heroism of this expedition, undertaken because of Thomas Jefferson’s vision to find an overland route to the Pacific Ocean.

Meriwether Lewis was a Renaissance man. Son and step-son of military men, he was an Army officer personally selected by Thomas Jefferson as his own right-hand man. Lewis was like a son to the President.

"To Him Who is Able to Keep You From Stumbling" - Can We Be Sure of Heaven? Part 4

I tripped and fell a couple days ago while I was on my run. One minute I was going at my normal (i.e. slow) pace, and the next minute I was plunging downward into the gravel. I caught myself on my palms and my right knee. Beside a few scrapes on my hands and a bloody knee, I was none the worse for wear.

I don’t know what happened. I didn't trip over anything unless it was my own feet. And it’s not like it was an unfamiliar route. I figure in the last five years I've been around this track over 600 times. I just fell, kablooey.

And as I stood to my feet, wiped my hands on my running shorts, and surveyed the abrasion on my knee, a Scripture verse popped into my head. Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling.

Carried Across the Finish Line

Ben Baltz is only eleven-years-old, but he's a brave kid. He survived cancer but lost his right leg, got a mechanical knee and prosthetic leg, and now does everything boys his age do. He plays baseball and soccer, rides his bike, and even competes in children's triathlons.

Last weekend he had a little trouble finishing a triathlon in Florida-- a 150-yard swim, a 4-mile bike ride and a 1-mile run. Halfway through the mile run, screws came loose in his prosthetic leg and it literally broke in two.

Some young Marines who were watching the race and cheering the kids on asked him if he needed help. He did. So they did what Marines do: they carried him across the finish line. You can read the whole story by clicking here, and here, and here. (Have some Kleenex handy, though.)

That's what Jesus does for us, right? We've fallen, and we can't get up. We're broken, and we can't fix what's wrong. So our wonderful, strong, Savior picks us up and carries us across the finish line.