{"id":34455,"date":"2024-12-12T22:21:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/"},"modified":"2024-12-12T22:21:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T22:21:00","slug":"father-dont-let-me-fall","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trinity Evangelical Divinty School professor Kevin Vanhoozer writes about caring for his aging mother in an issue of CT magazine:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>For nine years now, I have been watching my mother&rsquo;s identity slowly fade as memories and capacities switch off, one after another, like lights of a house shutting down for the night. Marriage may be a school of sanctification, as Luther said, but caring for aging parents is its grad school, especially when he or she lives with you and suffers from dementia.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s been said that as we become older, we become caricatures of ourselves. Dementia speeds the process. It&rsquo;s easy to see why: With loss of executive cognitive functioning, we&rsquo;re less prone to monitor what we say and do. We begin to fly on auto-pilot, re-tracing again and again well-trod paths.<\/p>\n<p>What lies under &hellip; the social masks we have carefully constructed? What lies under my mother&rsquo;s happy face? (&ldquo;I&rsquo;m fine,&rdquo; she&rsquo;d say, even after a fall). I recently discovered the answer.<\/p>\n<p>Years into the dementia, she lost her last line of defense and began to voice her inmost thoughts aloud. &ldquo;Father, don&rsquo;t let me fall&rdquo; accompanied her every shuffling step behind her walker. Initially I thought this terribly sad&mdash;clearly, she wasn&rsquo;t fine but anxious&mdash;yet I eventually found it comforting. The Bible depicts life as a walk: Shouldn&rsquo;t we all be praying to the Lord to help us avoid missteps? Though she had forgotten former friends and neighbors, and large swaths of her own life, she remembered the fatherhood of God.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3370,3399,3401,3524,3596,3760,3851,3947,4116,4160,4176,4180,4520,4558,4593,4597,4819,5091,5095,5193,5265],"tax_ctp_topics":[397],"class_list":["post-34455","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-accident","tax_ctp_tags-age","tax_ctp_tags-aging","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-christian-walk","tax_ctp_tags-dependence","tax_ctp_tags-elderly","tax_ctp_tags-falling","tax_ctp_tags-handicaps","tax_ctp_tags-home","tax_ctp_tags-human-condition","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-national-sanctity-of-life-day","tax_ctp_tags-old-age","tax_ctp_tags-parental-duty","tax_ctp_tags-parents","tax_ctp_tags-respect-for-old-age","tax_ctp_tags-struggles","tax_ctp_tags-stumbling","tax_ctp_tags-trouble","tax_ctp_tags-weakness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019 - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019 - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trinity Evangelical Divinty School professor Kevin Vanhoozer writes about caring for his aging mother in an issue of CT magazine: For nine years now, I have been watching my mother&rsquo;s identity slowly fade as memories and capacities switch off, one after another, like lights of a house shutting down for the night. Marriage may be Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019 - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-12T22:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-12T22:21:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019 - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/father-dont-let-me-fall\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018Father, Don\u2019t Let Me Fall\u2019 - CT Pastors","og_description":"Trinity Evangelical Divinty School professor Kevin Vanhoozer writes about caring for his aging mother in an issue of CT magazine: For nine years now, I have been watching my mother&rsquo;s identity slowly fade as memories and capacities switch off, one after another, like lights of a house shutting down for the night. 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