Why is it that I learn more from falling flat on my face than when things are rolling along successfully for me?

I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating this is in my life! Is this a conditioning in our lives? Do we have to fail to go forward?

Looking back over my life, I have been fortunate to have experienced great spiritual highs–times when I can really feel God’s calling for me and His presence in my life. During those times, it is so easy to follow Him! It just seems like second nature. But, inevitably, those times come to an end and I find myself tempted to go back to my old ways of acting and thinking.

It is in those times, that I want to develop the perseverance to keep on track! Instead of giving in to temptation and then feeling sorry for myself and asking for forgiveness–I want to grow through success instead!

Perhaps Jesus has provided me an answer in the parable of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12. Here is Jesus’ parable, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest (he experiences success!). He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy: eat, drink and be merry’. But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:17-21)

When I honestly look back over my life, my stumblings have come when I was “storing up things for myself”. What a powerful reminder for me. The rich man wasn’t a fool just because he was rich. He was a fool because he quit doing the disciplines that led him to having an opportunity to be successful. Once he made a decision to kick back and take it easy he realized only after it was too late that his life would be taken from him.

My “successes” are really just when I am doing what God has called me to do. My failings are when I make decisions–usually small ones to start with–that slowly draw me back into my selfish ways.

Here is where our decisions in life are so important. I want to stand on the shoulders of others who have lived a life of excellence in their relationships with God, their spouses, and their children. I want to be one who looks back at my life and doesn’t have major regrets when I realize that I have squandered so much of the time I was given.

The challenge this week is to think through where you are at in terms of your relationship with God. Is He your top priority? As Barry C. Black the U.S. Senate Chaplain asked yesterday as he preached at our church, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convict you?” That question covers your public life, but what about your private life? How are you doing there? Are you living a life of integrity where what you say matches what you do?

My prayer for you is that you have at least one person–if not a group of people–in your life that you can talk about the above questions with. Which leads me to say that I have begun praying for those who read this blog. I probably should have started a while ago, but if you read this blog often you know I am not always the quickest learner!

More to come…
Jeremy