By the time you read this, the New Year will have started. Maybe you will have made New Year’s resolutions which have already been broken. Good for you. At least you tried. At least you recognized a change you needed to make either in yourself or in the world and you made the attempt. Just don’t let the failure stop you. If you failed, try again. If you have not failed, then keep up the good work.
We are made to make a difference. There is a reason why God did not make you a chair, God created you for a purpose. Actually God created you for a multitude of purposes, you are a multi-purpose being, created by God to serve others and to love others and laugh with others, and sometimes to laugh by yourself, and sometimes to be loved, and sometimes to receive service, to sometimes be alone and sometimes to be in relationships and in community with others.
Too many times we let failure stop us. We make an attempt, we fail and then we give up. We make an attempt, we get hurt, we give up. Most of us can not remember the first time we tried to walk, but I can guarantee you, you did not meet with success on your first attempt. You failed. Sometimes you got hurt. But you kept trying, you did not give up, and you became a ‘walker’.
The point is we are called to be risk-takers, but we live in a society that is dominated by fear. We worry about our health, our finances, our future, our children’s future, our grand-children’s future, our country’s future, our planet’s future, etc. We worry about failure. We worry about pain, usually ours, occasionally somebody else’s.
So here’s the good news. The fear will never go away. Never. But it does not need to dominate us. It does not need to rob us of the joy and the excitement. It does not need to bind us and confine us. How many times did Thomas Edison try to invent the light bulb?
Life is not a spectator sport. We are not called to watch life pass us by. We are called to get involved, to make a difference, to take risks. Not silly risks, not dangerous risks, not stupid risks, but to take a chance, to take a small step, and if we fall, to get up and try again.
So congratulations on trying to make a change, keep it going, and if it didn’t work, make and adjustment and try again. Growth, even spiritual growth will almost always be uncomfortable, and sometimes fearful, but it will always be faithful. And being faithful means trusting in God.
Donn