Flourishing Life

“Success is failure with the dirt brushed off.” – Mamie McCullough

If things always worked out perfectly, the way we planned, life would be pretty boring. We would never learn very much. We would miss amazing opportunities to view circumstances and situations differently and achieve even more success we realized was possible.

We always want our plans to succeed, or else we wouldn’t make plans. However, our plans don’t always come to fruition as planned. What do we do with this?  Give up?  Get upset?  angry?  discouraged?  I’m glad Thomas Edison didn’t give up. In commenting about his quest to invent the light bulb, he said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” I’m really, really glad Jesus didn’t give up on those stubborn, hard-headed, self-centered apostles! They constantly failed to live up to their potential, but Jesus kept plugging away, teaching, guiding, picking them up and pointing them in the right direction.

Don’t give up. Get up! Brush off the dirt and take another step. You’ll be amazed at what’s around the next bend!