If At First You Don't Succeed

As a child, I had a few tomboyish ways. Largely because I was trying to keep up with my older brother. This would often land me in hot water. By that, I mean with scrapes, scratches, and bruises in the oddest places. Funnily enough, I still have some of those scars and I recall how I earned them. As I thought about the many (many!) times I fell in my childhood, there was always this natural habit to get right back up and return to whatever I had been doing. Part of it was pride and the need to feel tough in front of my siblings, cousins, or friends. The laughter at times was a mask for the pain that was radiating through my little body. On other occasions, I can recall dusting any dirt or debris from my clothing. There were even times I was dusting away or brushing off rocks, dirt, and gravel from a fresh wound before preparing to return to whatever game was in play.

Depending on the severity of the injury, staying down was never an option. It was always about returning to the activity. We might have a scrape or a scar, but that little bump in the road wasn’t going to stop the fun. As adults, we tend to lose that type of mindset. Perhaps it's because, as we grow, we also develop an increased awareness of what others perceive. For some of us, other people’s perception holds a tad too much weight. We are suddenly more concerned with what others think than with God. God’s promises and our faith is easily forgotten in the face of what other people think we should do or believe. Truth is, God’s promises alone should be the encouragement we need to get back up and keep moving whenever we stumble or fall.

I’ve previously mentioned my former love, horror movies. One thing that could be counted on in classic horror was a chase scene. Inevitably, during said chase scene, someone was going to fall. For those that chose not to hurriedly return to their feet and make haste, their fate was pretty much sealed. And it was never good.

Those experiences shed some light into our spiritual walk. Though some may lose sight of this, we are all merely human. Mistakes are inevitable. For those moments when we stumble or misstep, we can be exceedingly grateful for the grace of God. That and his mercy toward us allows dusting off and resetting. The issue is that some of us have our own feet on our necks. We become our own obstacles. One of the reasons being that many of us have high expectations for ourselves. When we fail to meet them, it’s like we hit rock bottom and now we’re on the opposite end and thinking of ourselves as the lowest of the low. 

In my line of work, we strive to look at mistakes or missteps as growth opportunities. How can we avoid this type of blunder in the future? What could we have done differently or better? When it comes to the choices we make in life, sometimes those self assessment questions aren’t that dissimilar. Rather than ignore what led you to slip, stumble, and fall, take the whole issue and have some one on one time with Jesus. If your intention is to make different, and better, choices in the future, he should always be your first step. Don’t beat yourself up when you don’t make the best choice. Instead, thank God for the grace and the mercy to have an opportunity to do it right the next that challenge rolls your way.

Stay Sunny!

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