MISTAKES AND GROWTH IN FAITH

 

One of the most useful things I have learnt in the past decade is that a person will never learn, never make an effort to improve, if they are comfortable. How many times have you worked with someone who makes the same stupid mistake, time after time, but you cannot tell them anything: They know they are doing this job the correct way! Your observation sees the same mistake but you cannot do anything about it.

 

Making mistakes is an integral part of growing up. Parents cringe at the times their toddler has pulled out a bag of flour from the lower kitchen cupboard and spread it around the floor. Well, now this a moment to teach what you can and cannot touch! How much patience a parent must put forth!

 

At the other end of life, how often do we have a senior grandpa, who is convinced of his driving skills, come back from shopping trip with a dent or two on the back side of his vehicle? Maybe your driving skills are not working so well any longer??

 

It is the same with our spiritual lives. The strongest block to growing in our faith is to think that we are believers and that we are doing a pretty good job of living a good life. Nothing blocks God so much as people who are convinced of the strength of their religious convictions. 

 

You cannot come to God unless you are hungry. You cannot come to God unless you experience an absence in your life. This is why the woman or man who are struggling to live a sober life (i.e., free of drugs and alcohol) know in their bones that they need God just to get through today. They know their weakness, and the power of the addiction over their lives and they feel how much they need God just to get through this day, this week or this month. T\heir poverty makes them honest before God.

 

Our Christian religion is based on mistakes. Remember that Peter walked away from Jesus. He denied that he ever knew the man! The disciples argued over who was the best and most proficient of the disciples. They were playing the power game when Jesus upset their apple cart and instructed them to welcome the powerless (i.e., little children).

 

Here is where we must apply this to ourselves. We make mistakes. We fly off at the mouth sometimes and wish that we had never said what we said. 

 

But our mistakes must never become moments of denial but rather a time for us to examine ourselves and see where we need to grow and improve. We need to be the grandpa who gets out of the driver seat, examines the two dents in the back of his vehicle and considers  whether this is time to hand in his keys.

Jesus welcomes us back from our mistakes, our selfish sins and our negative attitudes. There is real opportunity to grow. 

 

Spend some time reflecting on the mistakes you have made in your life and the opportunities that God’s grace gave you to learn, to grow and to begin anew.