Fall seven times, stand up eight. – Japanese Proverb

When You Feel Pulled Down

What really pulls us down are the things that once pulled us up!

It isn’t the things we haven’t had or experienced that pulls us down. It’s the things that we once had, and the possessions we once treasured that we are burdened with.

We are burdened with the memories of the people we’ve loved and lost.

We are pulled down by the things we’ve had back in the good old days.

We are weighed down by our failures, by the things we did but did not work out the way we wanted them to.

“I’ve tried everything,” is much more painful than not being able to try anything at all. Beneath those words is that feeling of exhaustion, and sometimes, of hopelessness, because if we have already tried everything, what else is left for us to do?

And that is why it is harder to get up after a fall than to rise up without any memory of pain. We’re afraid to try again. We’re afraid to have tried our very best only to know that even our best is still not enough.

A child oftentimes seem more courageous than older people because he hasn’t been hurt as much. His hope is full of all the wonderful things he feels he can still do. His memory is not yet burdened with failures and doubts.

But the one who is really more courageous is the person who rises up despite of his many falls. It is being able to go on despite the hurt, and to move forward despite losing much of his hope.

When one is trapped between his approaching enemies and a dead-end leading only to a vast open sea, his hope is almost nil. But if he could still pray and believe that even there, God can save him and make a way, he has already achieved victory and much courage. For that man, even the seas will be parted to make way for his faith!

Fall seven times, stand up eight. – Japanese Proverb