Sunday, March 1, 2015

The Shoebox, New Year’s Resolutions and Failing.

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The Shoebox, New Year’s Resolutions and Failing.

In my office is a shoebox. It is full of receipts from two years ago, receipts that were never properly recorded as I normally try to do before throwing them away.

February has just ended, only two months into the year; and like the shoebox, there are many things I intended to do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis that are left undone already.

Many of you may be in the same place, perhaps you have a similar “shoebox”; it may be physical or it may be spiritual. You made some resolutions for the New Year, maybe “official” ones, maybe public maybe private. Perhaps you wrote them down, perhaps you didn’t. But between Jan. 1st and Feb. 28th, those resolutions, those desires to do better, have fallen now and then, or perhaps altogether. Perhaps your “shoebox” is years old, full of old desires and dreams that you have given up on. Some of these things that we have failed to do, fulfill or accomplish are serious (sin to omit or commit), others are not so important.

The question now is, what are we going to do about it? We have a choice to make: either to give up and fail, or try again to succeed. Please note that the first has determined and guaranteed results, the second is yet to be decided.

Children fall often while learning to walk; yet, unless there is a physical handicap that prohibits, all succeed. The christian life is very similar to a child learning to walk in that we fall repeatedly, either through ignorance or willful disobedience. Yet some believers seem to grow more than others, and we often wonder why. I suggest the reason is because some choose to get back up and go on when they fall, while others decide to remain where they fell.

In Matt. 26 Jesus took his disciples with him into the garden to pray, and asked them to watch with him. In his humanity he desired and needed the comfort of human compassion and friendship. The disciples failed their best friend and slept while he was in agony of spirit; three times Jesus came to them, and three times he found them sleeping. They had fallen, but he would not let them fail. The words of Jesus to his disciples are full of hope for us today: in verse 46 he said, “Rise, let us be going:” This is what Jesus wants us to do when we fall, just like the parent encourages their child when they fall learning to walk. And he does not merely want us to get back up and go on alone, saying that he is ashamed of us and no longer counts us as a friend or wants to be with us; but he calls us to walk with him again! Note well what Jesus said, “let us be going”. “US”! He is not just going with us, but is calling us again to walk with him where he goes!

Perhaps you have fallen, but you don’t have to fail. Jesus wants you to get up, and he is willing to help you do so, and then to walk with you to keep you from falling again. Stop measuring your success by one moment of time, by some instance of ‘falling’. We measure the success of the most successful, not at a moment, but over time and often not until the end of their life. If you have breath left, there is still time to try to succeed.

Remember: you and I will remain where we fall if we refuse to get back up again; this is failing. Do you want to remain where you are? I don’t. But the only way not to is to “Rise, …and be going”.  Falling is temporary, failing is permanent; the first is natural, the second a choice. Maybe we’ve fallen so hard that all we can do at the first is to get up on our hands and knees and crawl, but Jesus wants us to get back up!

There are examples in the Bible of men who fell, two of which serve well to our point. Both Saul and David fell, but only one failed (1Sam. 15 and Psa. 51). The difference between them was that David was humble enough to admit his sin and ask for forgiveness and help, while Saul was proud and refused to confess his wrong. Which will we be like? Are we willing to admit our fallings? Are we willing to believe God when he says that he will forgive us and help us up again? 1John 1:9

Everyone falls, but it is only those that refuse to get back up and go on that fail. Will you merely fall, or will you fail?

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philip. 3:13,14

Today is a new day, today is a new month: “Rise, let us be going:”