Have you had any bad ideas recently?
Bad Ideas, Part 1.
We have a natural aversion to self-examination of events in our lives that go wrong, backfire, or cause us to come to grief.
It is because our egos get in the way, because of the shame or frustration we feel when things go wrong, and also because of the simple lie and idea that exists in our world that says, “I shouldn’t fail.”
“I shouldn't fail.”
How on earth did this lie get stuck in our minds?
How did we end up thinking that an attempt should equal success?
The idea that for every try of a thing, you should have a success of a thing is preposterous.
Once examined, there is no logic to this idea.
Success without trial and error does not exist, no matter how much you pray for success.
Part of the problem lies with our Pastors and Teachers, the people on stage talking about their experiences.
Success Stories
Success stories make for far better sermon analogies than a failure does.
However, a good teacher will not teach that one attempt should equal one success. A bad teacher may not teach that one attempt with prayer and God’s word will lead to the success of your venture, but they will imply it by the stories they tell. Their stories are all about their successes, often called God’s successes. But where are the failures?
From success-only-based teachings, you easily get left with the idea of “In God, I can not fail.” This is the power of ideas; a bad idea can exist in our subconscious and, we don’t even know we are operating from it.
1 to 10 Ratio.
What successes I have in my life live on top of at least ten times the number of failures.
- I can ride a bike today, but I have scars on my knees from all my failures.
- I can drive a car, thank God my mistakes only put dents in things.
- I have had jobs where I have failed.
- I have spent money on things that have failed.
- I have invested in things that failed.
- We are in the middle of lifestyle choices that are just plain weird for someone our age, downsizing our lives and getting rid of more personal possessions, all in the name of following Jesus.
- We are about to go on a six-month journey with no house to come back to. The car is gone, and our stuff will be in storage again, but why do we have this stuff?
I hope there will be few failures as we seek to live life better. Keep posted here.
I have some better ideas for us.
Success is built on many failures.
Discipleship and humility is presenting your failures for the advantage of others.
The problem with good judgment or success is that it is really hard to determine, from all the things you did, what caused the success.
With bad judgment, however, you know intimately and painfully what it was that you did wrong.
I have learned so much from my failures I’m thinking of doing some more.
Teachers.
If you want to build robust disciples, lead with your failures.
There is only one person for whom every attempt equals success, and that is Jesus, remembering that one of his successes was to die on the cross.