Failure is just part of the process, and it's not just okay; it's better than okay. God doesn't want failure to shut us down. God didn't make it a three-strikes-and-you're-out sort of thing. It's more about how God helps us dust ourselves off so we can swing for the fences again. And all of this without keeping a meticulous record of our screw-ups.
Jesus lets us be real with our life and our faith.
I don't know about you, but I've gotten to the end of the day more than a few times and realized my untucked shirt was uneven at the bottom. I'm usually just one button off but sometimes two. The fact is, some of the people who have shaped my faith the most were a couple of buttons off on theirs. They've made some big mistakes. Run toward these people, not away. There is a quiet confidence in knowing we all hit a couple of wrong notes here and there. The report card on our faith is how we treat one another when we do.
When the kids were growing up, we didn't have a television in the house connected to a cable or an antenna. If something bad happened in the world, I wanted the kids to hear about it from me.
Some of us have been told what we want our whole lives. We've been told we should want to go out for sports or not. We should want a college education or a graduate degree or a particular career. We should want to date this person and not the other.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I rushed home before the kids left for school and gathered them around our dining room table and told them what had happened. Like everyone else, we struggled for words to describe to our kids why such a thing would occur.
I live in constant anticipation of good stuff. It's not being 'Pollyanna' about things, but most stories don't have the ending we would give them right away. The better endings come later.
I have the sense that whoever here on earth we couldn't get along with, Jesus will make us roommates in Heaven.
Love is never stationary.
If a door is shut, go up and wiggle it a little - don't assume it's locked.
