Falling Forward

For over 18 years, I have been completely and utterly involved myself in ministry.

Camp, youth ministry, events, all-nighters, mission trips, retreats, you name it, I’ve probably done it. I was on an in-state mission trip in the summer of 2015. We had several worship services, and after each one, a group of people would pick up all the folding chairs and move them to the next location. 

Now, I come from an old-school mentality. The people I grew up around took their chair moving seriously. In fact, if you weren’t sweating moving these chairs in your “Sunday Bests,” you were easily considered soft. So I jumped in and started helping move these chairs. I grab a big arm full of and give it my best shot! What happened? well, I dropped them; they must have slipped (or that’s the excuse I’ll go with), and they fell on the concrete, drawing unwanted attention from all around. I gather them up and hustle them to their next location. I come running back for more. Let’s say the first time, I tried to grab eight at once; this time, I was going for twelve! I gather them up, can barely put my arm around them, and here we go … dropped them all again! On the concrete, everyone yet again stops and stares at the lunatic with the chairs. 

Later that day, one of the leaders of the worship gatherings came up to me. He was smiling and said something to the effect, “Ya know, I saw you grab all those chairs earlier and drop them. When you came back, I was surely thinking this time you’d try to take fewer chairs, but instead, you tried taking more. Even though you may have failed the first try, you still doubled what anyone else carried.” 

I haven’t forgotten that story and have always wondered if there is a deeper lesson involved for me to learn. When I read this quote the other day, it brought me back to this moment. James Cameron, the film producer and director, said, “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” In other words, if you attempt the impossible, fail in the pursuit, you will still accomplish much more than you ever would have before.

Maybe you aren’t good enough to make the team. Maybe you are too “old” to lose the weight. Maybe you just aren’t cut out to get that degree, receive a promotion, or pursue a job that you’d really love. Or maybe the fear of failure controls your life. At the end of my days, I can tell you this: I DON’T want the fear to keep me from trying. Perhaps in the end, I will look back and see a series of unmet goals, rejections, and a bunch of failures. But through it all, if I had the courage to try, I could, at the very least, die with the peace of knowing I had nothing left to give. 

“Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.” 

Robin Sharma