FAILURE (Personal)

Throughout my life I have had failures. Anyone that saw me try to play basketball, run track, and wrestle in high school can attest that my athletic career was a failure. I took test in school that I should have got an 'A' on if I had studied and applied myself, and the times I didn't prepare and didn't get an 'A' I consider it a failure. Even more so in the academic realm, I never finished my bachelor's degree in Engineering. Just years worth of credits sitting in limbo to remind me of my failure to finish when many people made sacrifices so I could achieve a higher education. As many know I have never been married and have no children, which I also consider to be a failure on my part. Most importantly, in my walk I have committed sins knowing that it separates my from my savior. Doing it in full knowledge of what Jesus did for me. I have been a failure at living the life that he wants me to live. I say these things to let you know that I understand failure, and what I'm about to say in my post the next few days is not me looking down. I will not be on the high horse, nor am I judging, I am a failure so I can't be above any of you. I am on or maybe even below your level, but I'm looking up to heaven and hopefully you are as well. 

     So events during this first week of 2021 have made me look back on 2020, and really even further back than that. The past year though has been particularly a trying time and I have watched what it has done to people. We have all had some curveballs thrown at us and I must say our reactions have been less than Christ like. We have all failed! Note that I said we because I am including myself. As already stated I am a failure in many ways and that is not always easy to reconcile when you want to be not just good but great. Life is made even more difficult when extra obstacles are thrown your way, believe me I know. That's why I know its easy to react in ways that go against the teachings of Jesus. I have been angry and destroyed things, been evil towards people, cussed and let my mind drift into sinful thoughts and lust, all the while excusing it because I felt like things were against me. I see it happening all around me now and I have to just state for the record that my reactions have been wrong and if you are reacting this way, you are wrong!

     I am opening up so that everyone reading this knows that even as a failure you can become a winner through Jesus Christ. The world may think of you as nothing, you may even think of yourself as nothing, but he was willing to die for your sake, for the sake of all of us failures out there. I can attest that my reactions to my failures and the failures of others are different because of my relationship with Christ, and I know that yours will be also. So if you are feeling like a failure, or feeling that your family has failed you, your country has failed, your friends have failed you, I say turn to Christ. His love never fails and if you focus on that fact the bitterness and anger in your heart that is driving you to hurt yourself, hurt other  people, destroy things, be unforgiving, judgmental, uncompassionate, will go away. Whatever else you are passionate about in life ( politics, sports, hunting, guns, music, education), whatever else you don't want to be a failure at (marriage, job, raising kid) don't fail at being passionate about the most important thing in this life, having a relationship with Jesus Christ.