Monday, 8 February 2016

Drowning



I'm writing this the morning after giving a talk to my churches youth group. I had 10 minutes whereI choose to dive into Matthew 13:44 (The parable of the hidden treasure) and explore the idea that our lives, our actions should be built upon the Gospel. It was a talk written to root home 20 odd kids from a mix of backgrounds to put Jesus at the centre of what they do. (I'll upload it as a transcript at a later date)

I spent time diving into the passage and thinking about how I could relate it back to them in preparation.

I came up with stories, illustrations to help them understand what I was getting at and how it should impact there lives.

After all that time and effort, I hoped that I would be able to do a good job.

I didn't... I stunk!

As I reflect, I'm starting to feel like I'm in the losers cafe in the apprentice! Picking it apart it became clear where I went messed up. I went on for too long, had too many ideas mixing in together. The journey wasn't clear and I lost some of the youth along my way. I did a rubbish job.

Maybe I'm a bit harsh on myself but as I begin to critique myself I can't help but feel that God could never use me in this way again. That I'd blown it!

I'm sure we all think like this from time to time. How could God use me when I've failed?

But we forget. The Bible is a book full of failures and God still uses them!

In Matthew 14:22-33, Matthew tells an account of the disciples out to sea, when they see Jesus walking on water. Not knowing that it was him at first Peter cries out “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” (verse 28) and of course Jesus replies "Come". When Peter steps out of the boat, he takes a couple of steps and then seeing the storm and the rain starts to sink.

What Jesus does next is amazing! Peter failed. He lost faith in Jesus and put his faith onto him. He was drowning. He was about to die! Jesus could have left him there and let him drown.

But he doesn't. Jesus stretches his hand and pulls him back up. Peter didn't deserve another chance yet Jesus saves him, challenges him and gets him back in the boat. Jesus wasn't done with using Peter because he stuffed up!

In whatever we do to live for Jesus, we are free to fail. Jesus won't let us drown. We will learn and be brought back to the boat to step out again.

I may not have done a good job out of my talk, however I was faithful. I stepped out of the boat and Jesus didn't let me drown! Jesus isn't done with me yet. He can still use me in whatever way he wants.

Monday, 1 February 2016

I've Failed!



I'll admit it. I'm a failure.

It's only been a few weeks into the year and I've already failed at least 2 of my goals for 2016. Last week I didn't post any blog posts at all and my tweeting everyday on both my personal and professional accounts have fallen flat.

Failed. It was going so well too.
I can put the blame on a number of things. Struggled to actually be motivated to tweet anything vaguely interesting, Writers block, lack of time, life got in the way... I can go on.

The truth is, we've all failed a long the way. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, come February looks back and realised how far they've fallen from their New year Resolutions.

Lets face it, we've all failed.

But is it because on the New Years day we ask ourselves the wrong question? We ask, what do I need to do to be better? Our soul motivation to succeed that goal is for us to become a "better me". By reaching that goal we can become happier in ourselves until we decide on the next goal. When we fail, we know that reaching the better me has gone! And we give up.

Society cries out that Failure's not an option.

You fail, and you're written off.
But should we be thinking about failure, so harshly?

As a Christian, I believe there is another way...

If ever there was a church that failed, it was the church in Corinth. It was filled with scandal! People arguing with one another, taking legal action on one another and sexual immorality. It was a mess. It was far from reflecting God's love to the world.

When Paul writes his first letter to the church, you might have expected that the church would be rebuked and told to disperse or even disassociating himself from the mess of the Corinthian church. But instead he writes this;

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. (1 Corinthians 1:4)

This is crazy. Outrageous even! After the initial shock the Corinthians would have had that they weren't thanked by God for anything positive, the fact that Paul declares that there's more grace for them is amazing. This was a church full of mess and even that wasn't enough to kick them out of favour of God. Paul calls them out to repent and to amend their ways to show this Grace but nonetheless they were given another chance.

We've been given countless second chances, thanks to the cross.

When we fail, we are picked up and go again.

When we fail, we've not written off. We're given an outstretched arm instead.

With God, we may fail him, but he never gives up on us.