The Thursday Update

Lakeshore Friends—

Failure is a part of life.  We all fail, and we all fail more than we’d like to think or maybe even realize.  James tells us what should be obvious when he says, “We all stumble in many ways.” (James 3:2).

The question is not if we fail, but what we do when we fail.  On Sunday, I shared Proverbs 24:16 which tells us, “Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”  So people who triumph over failure are the ones who get up just one time more than they fall down.

And that tells me something important: failure is never final.

As long as God is in heaven and we have breath in our lungs, our failures don’t have to be the end of the road for us.  They can be the start of a new road.  For that to happen, we need to start by getting things right with God, then right with people who we may have wronged before we can get right within ourselves.  That takes courage, but it always takes courage to get up one more time than you fall.

On Sunday, we’ll look at one of the major failure stories in the Bible, featuring King David.  We’ll see what leads us into deep failure and what gets us out of it.

If you want hope for the times that you have really messed up, this Sunday will provide it.

Warmly,

Vince