So…I recently made a BIG BLUNDER! I won’t bore you with the details but trust me I felt like that egg in the picture. And, if you would have seen me, I probably looked that way as well.
Have you been there?
Sure you have, it happens to all of us. We all wish we were like Caesar when he said, ‘Vendi, vendi, vici’ (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’) but we’re human and mistake prone. Yes, you will experience many victories along the way but also defeat. Just like eggs have a tendency to easily crack so failure is par for our course.
Jobs, responsibilities, deals, and most anything you do has a chance of being botched, butchered, and straight out goofed up. What do you do then?
Well, after feeling miserable, calling yourself a bonehead, and taking the appropriate time to lick your ego wounds, you have a choice to make: One, remain there (above pic of sprawled out egg), or two, deal with it.
One step I’ve found helpful after experiencing failure of some kind is to own up to it.
I read somewhere that Thomas Edison said he had found 5,000 ways how not to make a lightbulb. What a great twist to the reality of his failure. He was like the kid teaching himself to bat. He would toss the ball up with his left hand and then swing the bat. Again and again he missed and finally said, “Man, I’m a great pitcher.”
At the moment you may not feel as optimistic as the people I just described but you’ve got to own up to your messes. We often want throw blame around but after a while we start sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher, “Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.”
After you own it look for the possibility of a re-do, of doing a better job a second time around. Sometimes that’s not possible but if you have an opportunity, try it again.
It may have been a clumsy cowboy who said, “If you fall off the horse get right back on it” but it was wise Solomon who wrote,
“God-loyal people don’t stay down long; Soon they’re up on their feet” (Proverbs 24:16, THE MESSAGE)
Whenever you fail make sure you try again, if possible, but regardless, have the resolve to always do your best. There are talents, abilities, traits, sense of humor, a personality and many other things God has gifted you with to help you excel and shine. Major on those and soar!!
One more thing, if you feel like your failure involved letting God down, confess your blunder and hold on to two thoughts: God’s forgiveness for those who go to Him is a sure thing and God’s love for you never changes.
Jesus Christ is someone you can trust to hold you up even when you feel that you have let Him down. Matthew said of Him,
“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Matthew 12:20 NIV)
In God’s eyes our failures are not a permanent ugly mark but passing oops. God is crazy about you, thinks the world of you, and has fantastic plan for your life unfolding!
When you fail you will get down and discouraged. It’s part of life. But trust yourself into the hands of God, try again to do your best, and keep moving forward to what’s next.
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave me a comment.
God uses you no matter what you feel is your short comings. Don’t beat your self up. God uses those that are willing. Not those that are capable.
Very true. Good word, Judy, thanks!
WOW, Pastor you are hitting the nail on the head, lol, talking about me. So many times I’ve had to pick myself up an start over, an over again many times. Thank You Jesus for being there all the time. Where would I be without HIM??????
You and me…Thank You Jesus for holding on to us when we mess up.
What an awesome God we serve! And He has such a way with words! I mentioned this verse (MATTHEW 12:20), (and your blog), during our small group Thursday night. We can’t change our bone-headed blunders from the past, but we can learn from them. When we falter, stumble, or fall, we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, put our faith and trust in a loving and forgiving God, and move on; better and wiser from our experience.
That’s right, Jim, not easy to do but necessary.