Skip to main content

Stop Hiding Your Mistakes

                If you are job hunting in the future, do not be surprised if you are asked to submit two resumes: a traditional one that lists your accomplishments and a second one that lists your failures.  To a society that spends a lot of time bragging about itself, a resume of mistakes may seem like a silly idea, but we usually learn a lot more from failure than we do from success.  As well, the ability to deal with disappointment and to adapt to unfavourable circumstances is a valuable skill-set.  Therefore, employers are wanting to hear about a person’s full range of experience, rather than just the shiny, cleaned up versions of themselves that show up on the traditional resumes.
                That sort of thinking and honestly would go a long way to helping the church as well.   Unfortunately, a quick look at all the smiling faces on any given Sunday morning would make it hard to believe that anyone struggles with anything.  Too often, we only see a fake, cleaned up version of one another and this is causing the church to lose one of its most important messages: Repent!
                To repent simply means “to turn around” or “to go a different direction”.  It is such an important concept, that it is the very first word Jesus says when he starts teaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is near!” (Matthew 4:17).  In fact, Jesus’ whole job was to call “sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).  The disciples, in turn, “preached that people should repent” (Mark 6:12).  Rather than hide our struggles, scripture says that Christians ought to, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other” (James 5:16). 
                These days, because everyone is pretending to be perfect, it seems that no one repents of anything, but that is wrong!  Repentance is not a one-time thing that you did forty years ago when you were baptized and never think about again.  Rather, it is an on-going attitude that constantly allows us to get back on course and to help one another.
                Churches will become more effective when we stop pretending to be something we are not and admit our need for God’s power and his grace.  When we understand that mistakes are part of the growth process, we will acknowledge them, learn the lessons that they teach and go a different direction.
                After all, Jesus came to turn us around. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark and Light

            When you look out at the world, what do you see?             Some see nothing but trouble and pain.   They point to things like poverty, crime, problems with drugs and alcohol and marriage break-ups and say that the world is full of sadness and sorrow.   Watch the news for even a half hour and you will get the idea that the world is a dark place.             Others see nothing but good.   They appreciate generous people in their community.   They think about their friends and neighbours and smile.   They marvel at the beauty of sunrises and stars at night.   To them, the world is a bright and wonderful place.             You may be surprised that the Bible supports both of these world views.   On one hand it says things like, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the
1 comment
Read more

New Article: Five Words to Improve Your Relationships

                 In the late 1800s, it was common for railway companies to plant formal gardens beside their stations.   These gardens were filled with trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruit trees.   Sometimes they also featured a kitchen garden growing lettuce, carrots, corn, and potatoes.   Estevan’s Canadian Pacific Railway Garden was once located where Mid-City Plumbing and Heating is today.                The purpose of these gardens was to show what the land could produce.   After hours and sometimes days of riding across the featureless prairies, the railways wanted to show settlers the potential of their new home.   The gardens showed what was possible and they encouraged the settlers to transform their own land and discover its potential too.                Today’s verse acts similarly, in that it challenges us to find the potential in
Post a Comment
Read more

Forgetting What Is Behind

                   Generalizations are helpful because they show a pattern that is normally true. However, they are also dangerous because they ignore the exceptions to the rule.                  Here is my generalization:   It is a quality of the strong to be able to forget the past and move on.   The apostle Paul summarizes this idea when he states, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Too often, we trip over things that are behind us.   We remember and nurse old hurts.   We rehearse mistakes that no one else recalls.   In doing so, we pull the past into the present and allow it to dictate how we feel right now.   In these cases, we would be better off “forgett
Post a Comment
Read more