| Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) 40-41Let's take a good look at the way we're living and reorder our lives under God. Let's lift our hearts and hands at one and the same time, praying to God in heaven Lamentations 3: 40-41 (The Message) 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11 (NIV) |
| I recently dusted off and completed a craft project that I abandoned nearly 20 years ago. The small dollhouse that I thought would be such fun to construct and decorate had not met my expectations and I had stuck it on a shelf in the garage where it sat, untouched and nearly forgotten, until I found myself with unexpected spare time on my hands. Seeking distraction and remembering my poor, orphaned project, I rummaged around until I found it at the back of a cabinet, thickly covered with dust. Gingerly, I carried it inside to assess it worthiness for completion. Before abandoning the project, I had finished nearly all of the construction phase and had begun to decorate the little cottage. At that time my daughters were five and seven years old and my color choices made it very apparent that I had intended to give the completed dollhouse to them. This little, two-room house was a pastel nightmare with a lavender level, a pink level and a truly horrid mint green exterior! The poor little thing looked beyond saving. The unsightliness of my decorating scheme in combination with the fact that the girls had never shown any interest in dolls had convinced me long ago that this project was a dismal failure. And yet I had not thrown it away. Why did I keep that mint monstrosity all these years? Our garage is quite small and shelf space is at a premium, but the little house had survived many drastic clean-out events. It wasn’t that it had been a big monetary investment – the kit had cost a mere 18 dollars. But I had spent quite a lot of time on the little house and even though the results were disappointing, I had honored that time investment and held on to the project, thinking that I might return to it “someday�. That “someday� arrived and I spent a week happily remodeling and finishing the house. I found great satisfaction in the long-postponed completion of the project, which now looked like a tiny thatched-roof country cottage, complete with rustic wood floors and a rose bush climbing the brick chimney. There was no significant expenditure on the re-modeling effort, but many happy hours were passed correcting my long-ago lapses in taste and before long, the previously abandoned task was truly completed. As I worked, I thought about other, more important things that I have set aside because I became discouraged: objectives, duties, even people. I thought about my shortcomings as a Christian. Our Father calls us to be diligent and persistent in our lives. We are to pray constantly, even if no answer is given immediately. We are charged with bringing the Good News to all people, even when they are not willing to listen. We are to be in the Word daily, even when life is busy. These goals can be so overwhelming that we sometimes give up and hide our defeat away on a shelf deep within us. But just as my little house waited until the time was right, that missed evangelism opportunity, that neglected relationship with Jesus, that unread Bible page or that unspoken prayer will wait for you to resume your efforts. Taken as a whole, our back-burnered responsibilities are daunting, but approached singly; easing back into action and giving thoughtful attention to just one goal at a time, those same undertakings which caused us to have feelings of defeat and unworthiness will become an eventual source of joy. So dust off that resolve to be more in the Word or talk to that resistant family member about Jesus one more time. Renew your prayer life and explore new connections with your fellow Christians and then take pleasure in the feelings of peace and fulfillment that will follow. What you consider a failure may simply be a postponed success. It is never too late to start again. ©2008 Elizabeth Williams |
Failure or Merely Success Postponed?