Hang in There

Last week I wrote about SMART goals for the New Year. Today we are six days into the new year. Are you still on track with your resolutions? I have already failed at one!

I set a goal of reading two or more “church related” books a month this year. One of the strategies I listed for doing so was to read those books one or two hours a night when I wasn’t at church for a meeting or out for some other reason.

This week I was home three nights and only followed my strategy on one of the nights. I was distracted by many things; a night of travel in a hotel room, bowl games, and some other reading I chose to do.

Those are not excuses. Those are choices I made. Because of choices I made, I failed to execute my strategy to achieve my goal. For those of you who know me, I am relatively competitive (O.K., that’s an understatement), which means that I will find a way to meet my goal by January 31.

I failed this week, but that doesn’t make me a failure. That’s an important distinction to keep in mind. Failing is something we all do. In fact, we need to be failing at things, because if we aren’t failing, we aren’t pushing ourselves to grow and learn.

I have played golf for many years and for a long time I had never broken 80. I set a goal one summer to break 80. I went several summer months where I failed to achieve that goal, but it didn’t make me a failure. I kept trying. There were setbacks, circumstances, and near misses. At times it seemed as if the golf gods were against me. But I kept trying. It gave me an excuse to play more!

Finally one day, unexpectedly, I shot a 78! Then Becky and I took a planned two-week vacation which included no golf. The day after I returned I played with a friend and after a two week hiatus I shot a 77!  Finally, after failing on numerous occasions, I succeeded. I had failed, but I wasn’t a failure. (Breaking 80 regularly is still an illusive goal.)

Failing at something doesn’t make us a failure. It makes us human.

Being a faithful follower of Jesus is a lot harder than breaking 80 for me. I have good intentions, goals, plans, strategies and systems; but often I fail. But God doesn’t think I’m a failure. In fact, God knows we stumble, miss, and struggle. He doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He knows we can’t be perfect. He only wants us to persevere. In fact when we persevere God boasts about us to others! (2 Thess. 1:4).

So, if you made New Year’s resolutions and have already failed, start again; persevere. If one of your New Year’s resolutions had to do with becoming more like Jesus (and I hope it did), don’t expect to be perfect, but when you fail, remember you are not a failure. Persevere.

I would write more, but I have to go read!

Rev.