Posted by Michael
I’ve asked my small group to come up with the one thing they
know now, that they really wished someone had told them when they were fifteen
years old. The plan is to turn each
lesson into a small group topic for discussion.
My lesson would be that failure is an option, and sometimes a very
important one. For years, I have
obsessed, overworked, and at times avoided opportunities in order to manage failure. I’ve always thought
failure was the enemy, that failure on
my part would prove to the world just how incompetent I am and how little I know.
With the Super Bowl looming in the near future, I am reminded that 31 of the 32
teams will fail this year in their quest to win it all. Many of the players
from whichever team wins the big game will go home to failing marriages,
failing financial plans, or failing friendships. Failure is inevitable, and as
hard as it is to say, I’m grateful for that. Failure propels me into the grace
of God. It reminds me that I was never created to do life alone. It reawakens
my need for God’s forgiveness, His mercy, and His love. Failure isn’t fun, but
our character development would stall without it. I would love feedback on what one thing you wish someone would have told you when you were fifteen!
I wish I could have known that "my purpose" was to love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength, and love my neighbor as myself. I was immobilized with wondering and worrying about what my life's "purpose" was. I wish I knew then that who I am is good. All I have to give is what I have been given, all I have to be is me.
ReplyDeleteI wish someone had told me at 15 that I had worth and value. I wish I had known that I was already enough and perfection wasn't a life requirement. Knowing - like real experiential knowing, not just cognitive knowing - that God made me beautiful (despite my greatest fear that there was no beauty to be found) and that I was worthy of love - completley enough just by virtue of who God created me to be - would have changed the world for me.
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit of an ironic question - I initially purused becoming a counselor because I wanted to come alongside 15-year-olds to tell them this very thing (even though at the time I was unable to believe it for myself). I hope that as your small group works through this exercise/study that you all grow and fall more in love with Jesus. Matter of fact, I'll be praying exactly that for you.
love this idea and will probably steal it... but when i was 15, i really wish someone would have told me that i had a destiny... a for real one. i had always heard God had a plan for me, but mostly thought that meant that if i were 'good' then i would eventually be 'successful' or 'safe' or everything would be 'good' too. but as a young man, i wish someone had gone deeper sooner, sat me down, and unpacked my destiny as a Christ follower... my opportunity to play a 'braveheart' role for the cause of Christ... to be a rescuer of orphans, a voice for the voiceless and oppressed, and a defender of the weak, and that it could have begun right then and there! That it wouldn't be easy, but what battle was? But that this was the GOOD fight and there were heroes needed. It might cost everything, but i was just the man for the job... and speaking of failure, that would come in the process. But God was less concerned w/ my performance and achievement in this endeavor than He was in my passion for the things that move His heart and would now forever move mine. That would have been cool to hear... just sayin'
ReplyDeleteLove you bro and what you are doing!
andrew
To let the people you love know it. You never know when you might lose someone through their own choice or through death. Dont allow yourself the regret of not letting them how important they are.
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