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Finding success in failure - how to hit the ground running in 2019

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Finding success in failure - how to hit the ground running in 2019

I saw two amazing statements quoted on social media this week. Here’s the first:

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

Few people in the last century had the ability to express profound truth more clearly than C.S.Lewis, and this statement proves it.

People make two mistakes in relation to past failures. The first is refusing to admit they failed at all, papering over their issues with other peoples’ alleged shortcomings, and moving on fearlessly to new failures in the future. And they succeed in reaching their goal.

Christmas letter 2018

Christmas letter 2018

This year I am publishing our Christmas letter on our website and through Facebook if for no other reason than it seems the easiest thing to do. 

First of all, let me give a very quick excerpt from one of my recent blogs in which I gave an update on some of the things we are doing. 

“I can’t believe it’s been two years since I wrote a blog titled “Jumping off a cliff.” In it, I talked about our decision to step out of leadership of the church we had planted many years before in obedience to God’s call to serve him on a wider basis.

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All shapes and sizes

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All shapes and sizes

Every time I think I’ve seen everything in church I get surprised. And last Sunday it happened again. 

We were visiting good friends of ours who are leading a brand new church in northern Indiana. It turns out almost every last person in the fellowship grew up in the Amish. Some had barely traded in their horse and buggy.

Even within the Amish, there are lots of differences. You’ll often find a lot of legalism and not much true understanding of the Gospel. Yet, as you can imagine, there is a great sense of community and shared values. Many of these folk left the Amish because they had come to Christ. We heard one moving testimony from a young man, who had experienced the Rumspringa, the rite of passage where teenagers are allowed to run wild for a year and do anything they want (that's why, as we found out living on a rural Michigan highway, you can hear the boomboxes resonating as the buggies go past at 3 am on a Saturday morning).

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Following the cloud

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Following the cloud

People allow their lives to be directed by all sorts of things. Some people follow careers, some follow sports, some follow money, some follow pleasure, some follow happiness.

But as for us, we are (or should be) following the cloud.

I am alluding, of course, to Numbers 19. When the cloud rested over the tabernacle, the people remained. Whether it was a day or a month or what the Bible describes without further definition as “a longer time,” they stayed put. But as soon as the cloud lifted, they set out, and kept on following the cloud until it came to rest again.

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Jumping off a cliff (update)

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Jumping off a cliff (update)

I can’t believe it’s been two years since I wrote a blog titled “Jumping off a cliff.” In it, I talked about our decision to step out of leadership of the church we had planted many years before in obedience to God’s call to serve him on a wider basis.

No salary, no pension, still kids to support. All those thoughts went through my mind, believe me. But the same God who began to supply my needs as a penniless student and carried me (then us) through so many challenges since has - guess what - showed himself faithful. When we look back on God’s track record of faithfulness, why do we ever doubt? Probably for the same reason the disciples doubted Jesus’ ability to feed the people with seven loaves when just a few days before he had fed an even bigger crowd with only five. In truth, we are all doubting Thomases, to one degree or another.