By Daniel Garner
"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him" - James 1: 12 ESV
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” - Winston Churchill
In a First Grade class room, it was Show and Tell day. The teacher picked three boys to stand up and present their objects to the class. The first boy stood up and said "Hi, My name is Ben, I'm Jewish and this is a Matzaball!" The second boy got up and said "Hi, my name is Paul and I'm Catholic, this is a Crucifix!" Finally the third boy got up and said "Hi, My name is Billy and I am Baptist, and this is a casserole!!"
One of the things I get a giggle out of most is denominational humor. We're all Brothers and Sisters in Christ and one big family, but like any big family we certainly have our quirks! Outspoken actress Shirley MacLaine said "The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused".
That is definitely the truth! But sometimes there's a flipside to that. I've met many people along the way who take a different tact to when they mess up or sin: They self-loathe. I've said before that life isn't always what we choose to make it, but how we react to it is. Whenever we mess up we can shrug it off, laugh and learn from it or send that pain inward and chastise ourselves for our mistakes. Obviously this isn't healthy. But we're all human, we mess up and we sin. It's just what we do. However, it's what we do once we realize that we've done something wrong that really defines what kind of people, and Christians, we are.
I remember decades ago riding in the car with my mom. I think I was in First Grade and had done poorly on some assignment that we were given. So, we're driving on this hill and I'm looking at this paper that in my eyes was such a sad and miserable disaster that I exclaimed "I'm so stupid!"
My mom immediately stopped the car and looked at me with the look reserved for when she REALLY needed me to listen.
"Daniel, don't ever say you're stupid. Ever. Just because we may do stupid things in life it does NOT mean that we are stupid."
That was 20 years ago and it's never left me. My mother taught me, just like our Heavenly Father, that our mistakes don't make us who we are and just because we make those mistakes doesn't mean that we're a failure.
Don't ever give in to self-defeat. Don't ever convince yourself that you're somehow lesser than others, stupid, or a failure. But most importantly, never become convinced that you are ever anything other than matchless among the best.
The Bible says in James 1: 12 that "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him" (ESV, [emphasis mine]).
It's really hard at times but we have to strive to let what we want to do determine what our abilities are, not what we think our abilities are limit what we want to do. We have to remind ourselves that Moses was a stutterer and murderer but God still used Him and David was an adulterer but still he was used to the benefit of the Lord. We all have those failures. Big ones like a failed marriage or small ones like my first grade assignment.
There's two types of people in the world. Those who look forward to what they're going to do, what they're going to be in the future. Those who don't give in to failures.
Then there's the other guys.
Those who look to the past for reasons why they cannot ever be more than they are. Those who fail at something and then give up forever. They blame everyone else for their mistakes and for reasons why they can never go forward. We all fail and fall. The difference is between those who don't use it as a crutch and those that do. The Lord Himself commands us in Joshua 1: 9 to be "strong and courageous". I don't know about you, but if the Creator of the Universe Himself believes in me enough and says that I have the capability to be strong and courageous, I'm game!