“I use to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me, but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter”–Bob Goff
God doesn’t want failure to shut us down. God didn’t make it a three-strikes-out sort of thing. It’s more about how God helps us dust ourselves off so that we can swing for the fences again. Things that go wrong can shape us or scar us. It’s up to us on how we choose to respond to what happens to us.
In the end we are all like human origami and the more creases we have, the better.
Its about moving from the bleachers to the field, from opinions to options, from just thinking to doing. And we just need to show up! Take the Rich Young ruler the challenge that Jesus gives is are you and I willing to give up all we have to follow him, to know God.
The question then becomes are we willing to trade up? Its like the game bigger or better. Where you go around and ask people if they are willing to trade lets say a dime for something bigger or better and you continue to do so until you end up with a Chevy truck or couch. Jesus isn’t requesting a sacrifice at all. He’s asking us to play bigger or better, where we give up ourselves and end up with him.
The game of bigger or better that Jesus is playing with us, is with our pride. He asks if we would and are willing to give up that thing we are so proud of, that thing we think that causes us to matter in the eyes of this world.
He asks “Will you take what you think defines you, leave it behind, and let me define who you are instead?”
When we get our security from Christ, we no longer have to look for it in the world. Jesus not only stands at the door and knocks but he invites us to stand at the door of his house and do some knocking too. And when he opens the door, he wants us to bring all of our faith we have to him. He promises that he will trade up with us because he himself is what we have the chance to trade for.
And what we’ll have to exchange for knowing him is everything we’ve accumulated during our lives and are standing on the porch holding onto…
