STUFF I’VE LEARNED THAT SEMINARY DIDN’T TEACH ME #40

Celebrate victories and learn from past failures. It is easy to fall into the trap of, “Woe is me.”  Negativity can be a malignant way of thinking that kills hope—and without hope, it is impossible for a church and her leaders to find a way forward. Victories are often hard won. You make much effort—you pray, perhaps fast, labor, and you see God bless. We are tempted at that point to stop and catch our breath.  DON’T!  It is time to build on that momentum. Spend some significant time celebrating the goodness of God. Rejoice as a congregation. Give Him glory. Seeing a successful ministry effort is a time to give glory to God and pat your workers on the back. Then ask, “What is the next step?” Roll up your sleeves and get back to work!

Even a failure need not be final. See it in the positive light of being a learning experience. This is what I first heard John Maxwell term, “failing forward.”  When you have stumbles—and you will—do not wallow in self-pity or retreat in despair, but fail forward by asking, “What is God teaching us?  What might we have done differently?  Was it a bad idea or just bad timing or poor execution?”  Some of the most helpful lessons I have learned have been taught in the school of hard knocks where the school colors are black and blue. Those scars speak to realities engraved by the stylus of pain on this all too human clay. But, God is doing the writing and He has a future and a hope. If you learn and move on you are smart. If you keep beating your head against the wall by repeating the same flawed effort you are stupid!

FALLEN!

“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭9:27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

In the front cover of my Bible I have this reminder:

“The better the man, the better the preacher. When he kneels by the bed of the dying or when he mounts the pulpit stairs, then every self-denial he has made, every Christian forbearance he has shown, every resistance to sin and temptation will come back to strengthen his arm and give conviction to his voice. Likewise every evasion of duty, every indulgence of self, every compromise with evil, every unworthy thought, word, or deed, will be there at the head of the pulpit stairs to meet the minister on Sunday morning, to take the light from his eye, the power from his blow, the ring from his voice, and the joy from his heart.” (Clarence Macartney)

Men, it’s bad if we fall, but what makes it worse for the pastor is that many others will trip over him when he does.

DON’T LOOK BACK

But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  (Luke 9:62)

In ministry, it is tempting at times to look back, but Jesus warned us about it.  He used the example of a man plowing a field.  The farmer must keep his eyes fixed on the ground before him, if his furrow is to be straight. To look back is to go astray and maybe worse—to run into a rock, tree or fence post!

We must not be LIMITED by our past.  We all have a past—some of it is good, some of it is bad.  There are decisions we ought not to have made—and we may still be living with the consequences.  Life has no rewind button.  Regret will only hinder us from getting where we need to go.  “Don’t cry over spilt milk!” is the old saying. On second thought, maybe you do cry with remorse, confess in repentance, but then claim forgiveness and move on.  Failure need not be final.  The pages of the Bible are filled with men of faith who messed up, but moved ahead.  I know as a pastor I have made sinful decisions and others that were just stupid decisions.  We must not cave in to the paralysis of analysis.  Learn from it, but do not be limited by it.  The past needs to stay in the past.

We cannot LIVE in the past.  This is the polar opposite of limiting ourselves by past failures—it is relying on previous successes.  This happens when we do not succumb to regret, but nostalgia.  It is, “The good old days” syndrome.  We idolize the way it used to be—which is seldom as good as we imagined anyway—and this hinders us from embracing the opportunity of the present time.

Paul had this wonderful resolve,

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  ‎Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:12-14)

If we are not alert, we can rest on the results of effective ministry, and in the present shift into neutral.  Ministry effectiveness slows and eventually stops when we do.  “The victory of yesterday becomes the sin of today if it keeps us from the challenge of tomorrow.” ((R.B. Oullette).  Let’s grab the plow handles firmly, look straight ahead, and go!  Don’t look back!

DOWN, BUT NOT OUT

"when we are knocked down, we get up again." (2 Corinthians 4:9b CEV)

We will stumble.  Not even God's greatest champions make it through the battlefield of this world without being bloodied.  The question is not whether defeat will occur, but how will we respond to it? If you get knocked down, you don't have to be knocked out.

One of the most appealing qualities about the Rocky Balboa movie character was his bulldog tenacity.  He would get up again and again.  Rocky was resilient.  He would not throw in the towel.  Neither must we!  That is what the Enemy of our souls desires.

Noah built an ark, but was also blind drunk and naked in his tent.  Abraham had faith to have an Isaac, but not enough to resist his wife's proposal that brought Ishmael into the world--and we are still paying a price in the Middle East conflict over that one.  Jacob was a scoundrel only a God of amazing grace could choose to found His chosen people.  Moses started his career with the murder of an Egyptian, and ended it short of his life's goal.  Joshua led the Israelis to overcome the fortress of Jericho, only to see the army routed by a few warriors from Ai.  Samson--really, do we have to rehearse his defeats, before he finally "brought down the house"?  David was a man who beat a giant with a slingshot, but would be overcome by lust.  Elijah stood, one man against four hundred false prophets, and then ran like a scared rabbit from Jezebel's wrath.  Jonah was a fugitive from God's will before he led a spiritual awakening--and with a sorry attitude even then!  Peter is the New Testament poster child of defeat--and of recovery and subsequent victory.  If you feel defeated, you are in good company.

We can be bruised and broken, but we don't have to be finally beaten.  If Jesus would restore Simon Peter, then He can do the same for us.  Learn from the past, but don't live in it.  Dwelling in the land of regret is to settle for the shadowlands of "What if?"  It is to miss what can be because of what has been.  Confess your sin.  Pray through Psalm 51, with sincerity, and then get up, dust yourself off and get back into the fray.  God is not through with you.