Friday; July 20

The other day I heard a comment that really hit me.  The speaker challenged us by asking, “What would you do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?”.  On the surface this appears to be a procedural question, but the more I thought about it, the more powerful it became.  How often do we limit our potential even before we try?  We momentarily ponder what might be possible, then we quickly dismiss it out of fear of failure.  That fear might come in form of the futility of defeatism (“Why should I spend my time doing this because I am just going to fail anyway?”).  Maybe more critical for many of us is the fear is born of our being perceived as being a failure (“If I try and fail people will make fun of me or I will let someone down!”).  We give up before we start because we are sure that we are bound to fail.  How would our lives and our attitudes change if we adopted the confidence of success?  Interestingly, we get to choose how we begin a project.  Since the results aren’t known at the onset, we can either launch into a project with the confidence of success or dread of failure.  Just as interestingly, our initial instincts are probably correct – not because we are all that insightful, rather because our attitudes are often important in whether something succeeds or fails.
This principle is important in many aspects of our lives including our spiritual living.  We have all been called to do good things with the talents we have been given, are we going to be effective – are we going to make a difference?  Our success may be determined by what we believe about our potential. 
When the Apostle Paul mentored the younger minister, Timothy, he reminded him, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” (II Timothy 1:7).  Are we preparing to flourish or fail?  It may depend upon our expectations in the beginning.
Think About It!

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