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Archive for the ‘Life Lessons’ Category

Everyone Fails

You have to love the spirit of Arthur Pedrick. Between 1962 and 1977 Arthur patented 162 inventions. Among other inventions, Arthur patented a bicycle with amphibious capability, a golf ball that could be steered in flight, and a way to supply water to the deserts of the world by keeping a constant supply of Arctic snowballs flying to the deserts with giant peashooters located in the Arctic.

What about his spirit is there to love? In the face of failure after failure, Arthur never quit trying. In 1902, the poetry editor of Atlantic Monthly returned a stack of poems to an aspiring poet.  This note accompanied the unpublished poems, “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” The aspiring poet’s name is Robert Frost. In 1905, the University of Bern turned down a doctoral dissertation as “irrelevant and fanciful.” That aspiring scholar was Albert Einstein. In 1894, a teenager named Winston Churchill had a note on his report card which noted his “conspicuous lack of success.”

Faith is not just belief. Faith is a belief that allows one to keep on keeping on, even in the face of failure. Before he was the leader of a nation, Moses was a 40-year-old failure, running from the Pharaoh. Before he was a preacher on Pentecost, Peter lied and denied that he even knew Jesus. Before he penned the Gospel of Mark, he offended the Apostle Paul so much that Paul would not even take Mark on a missionary trip with him.

It is not your failures that define you. It is how many times you are willing to fail and then try again. Everyone remembers Will Rogers for his great wit and sense of humor. He did not start out as a humorist. He started out as an act that entertained audiences with rope tricks. One day, in the middle of his act, Will failed. He got tangled up in his ropes. Facing people who had paid money to see him do rope tricks, he said, “A rope ain’t so bad to get tangled up in if it ain’t around your neck.” The audience roared. He loved their response to his humor. His failure changed his life.

Failure is not a sin. As the Bible says, “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” (Proverbs 24:16). You have only failed with you quit trying. There is a difference between saying, “I have failed” and “I am a failure.” Everyone fails, but not everyone is a failure.

Lonnie Davis

Excuses or Opportunities

Luke 14:16-18 –

“He said to him, ‘A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ ‘But they all alike began to make excuses.’”

Bob knocked on his neighbor’s door. When Barry answered the knock, Bob asked him, “Can I borrow your rope?” “No,” Barry answered, “we are using it.” Bob was surprised at being turned down and probed, “Really? What are you using it for?” “Well,” Barry answered, “we are using it to tie up our orange juice.” “How is that possible,” Bob asked. Barry paused and then responded, “I don’t know, but if you don’t want to do something, then one excuses is as good as another.”

Over the decades of preaching, I’ve heard just about every excuse imaginable for forsaking the worship of God. People have told me that they do not come because they are too busy. Some have told me that they don’t come because they are out of town. (Every Sunday?) I knew one many who had a mysterious illness that afflicted him on Sunday, but never on Saturday (the Devil must have sent it). I do not know how many times I have had people tell me that they were coming, but just as they were getting ready, relatives from out of town came over.

Let me tell you how one man handled such a situation. One Wednesday night in 1999, it was getting near church time. Byron Nelson had a friend come by for help with his golf swing. As it drew nearer the time for Bible study, he turned to the friend and said, “We go to church on Wednesday night. You are welcome to come with us or stay here till we get back.” The friend decided he too would go to study the Bible. So that night Byron and his wife brought Payne Stewart to worship and Bible study in a little church in Roanoke, Texas.

He could have just said, “I have company, famous company, so I’ll just stay here with him.” He did not. He used that time as an opportunity to bring a friend to worship. Some folks look for excuses to miss worship and others look for opportunities to share worship and Bible study.

Lonnie Davis