Yesterday we raised the question: What do we do with our failures?

I have to imagine that we all have those moments when life doesn’t work out like we’d hoped. Maybe we fall short of our own expectations. Maybe we are given an opportunity to do the right thing and we fail to do it. 

Some people will just continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over because they can’t admit they made a mistake in the first place. (You probably don’t know anyone like that!) Others don’t believe they can ever change, or they won’t ask for the help they need. Others still somehow have it in their head that they are a bad person, and that failure can lead to self-loathing or tremendous guilt that drives them right back to the same mistakes over and over. 

I’ll never forget years ago, a young man said to me, “Joe, what I did was so bad. Most mornings, I can’t even stand to look at myself in the mirror.”

So, do we let our failures define us? Do they get the final verdict?

When I reflect on the failures in my own life, things that I truly regret, there have been some failures of commission – things I’ve done, that hurt others, that I wish I could undo. There have been many more failures of omission, things I should have done or said, people I could have helped but didn’t. And it is painful to even think about it…

However, I’ve become more and more aware that If we pay attention, if we own up to our mistakes and don’t shift the blame, our failures have a lot to teach us. Our failures can become sources of tremendous compassion, strength, and resolve. Compassion because it is humbling to fail. It is hard to be judgmental and hyper-critical of people when we realize that we are all really in need of God’s grace.

But also strength…There’s this line in Earnest Hemingway’s book, A Farewell to Arms, that has stuck with me over many years. Hemingway writes, “The world breaks everybody. And many are strong in the broken places.” The truth is we fall down a lot. And when our wounds heal, there is the potential for us to come out on the other side of it much wiser, kinder, and stronger. And with resolve. 

May you learn from your failures in life. May you become strong in the broken places. May you turn back and use your strength to strengthen others. And may you know in the very deepest part of your being that God never gives up on you.  

Let us pray: Wash over us with your grace, O God. Empower us to turn again to you, and follow you with all of our hearts. Amen.

Today’s message was written by the founder of Dial Hope, the Rev. Roger Kunkel

One of my favorite subjects is gratitude. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” Friends of Dial Hope, most of us specialize in periodic outbursts of gratitude. Rather than a continuous condition or a state of being, thanksgiving becomes an event, a time, a day, in particular, the fourth Thursday of every November. But gratitude needs to be an attitude, a perpetual one. 

To keep myself in a thankful condition, I do the following: I launch my attitude of gratitude when I awaken. In the silence of my heart, I say, “Thank you, God, for a night of rest and for the gift of a new day. I am thankful, I am thankful. I am thankful, and I will live this day in gratitude, from start to finish, come what may. Lord, what are you up to today? I want to be a part of it. Now I ask that you bless me so I may be a blessing to others.” 

The crucial thing is to get yourself prepared for yet another day of thankfulness. Crashes, victories, and boredom will come and go. Our attitude of gratitude endures. With perpetual thanksgiving, I remain.  

Let us pray: Loving God, who broods over us at night like a mother bird over her nest and rises upon us in the morning like the sun that warms the earth, we lift our hearts to you in praise and thanksgiving. You have richly blessed each of us. Thank you for your love and extravagance. This day, may we be beautifully extravagant in our generosity, gratitude, and kindness toward others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard once wrote:

If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating as possibility?

As you look at the world around you, as you consider your own relationships and your own life, what do you see? Some people only see the negative. Others impose limits by their understanding of the past. But the truth is, there is endless possibility. 

In the book of Genesis, when the Lord appears to Abraham and Sarah, the Lord promises them that they will have a son, even in their old age. Sarah laughs at the promise, but God responds by asking, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

In a similar fashion, in the book of Jeremiah chapter 32, we read, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?”

You and I know the answer to that question. May God fill us with a passionate sense of what can be. 

Let us pray: In the dark and troubling times of life, O God, it is hard to believe. It is hard to imagine a different future or to dream of a new day. But you are the God who creates possibility. You are the God for whom all things are possible. Arise from within us an overwhelming sense of hope, and grant us new eyes to see all that can be. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Psalm 108 begins:

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
    I will sing and make melody.
    Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
    I will awake the dawn.
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples,
    and I will sing praises to you among the nations. 
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
    and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

What a beautiful day to begin a day! 

For many of us, morning time is a time of alarm clocks, tired children, and scrambling to get out the door. For others of us, it is hard to get out of bed; aching bones and muscles make it difficult to get moving. For others still, despair can be paralyzing. 

C.S. Lewis has some powerful thoughts on this. He once wrote, “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

My prayer for each of you at first morning light, you would pause even for a moment, give thanks for the new day, and open your heart anew to God’s strength and love.

Let us pray: We praise you, O God, for your mercies are new every morning. Grant us hearts that will sing in response. Amen. 

The Apostle Paul once wrote, “Though I am free, I made myself a servant to all so that I might win some of them…” (See 1 Corinthians 9:16-23.)

Think about Paul for just a moment. Here was a man whose entire life was turned around. He had been a Pharisee – very religious – very dogmatic, actually persecuting Christians. He had this life-changing encounter with Christ, which changed not only what he believed, but also how he lived… how he loved, and how he gave. 

He had seen firsthand how our suffering is transfigured by the cross. He had seen firsthand how God’s power can be manifest in our lives. He had seen firsthand how forgiveness and grace can open hearts and completely turn around relationships. And he had seen firsthand how a community of faith can be a source of healing and growth. He had seen this, experienced this!

Paul believed, not only that the gospel meant for us life after death, he also believed that it also meant life – before death – that it could make a difference in people’s lives and was a gift right here, right now. And he passionately believed he had something worth sharing.

“Though I am free, I made myself a servant to all so that I might win some of them…”

Notice what he doesn’t say. Here he’s not talking about cornering people and haranguing them in the streets. He’s not talking about beating people up with his Bible. He’s not talking about scaring them with threats of hell and damnation. He’s not talking about building political blocs of clout and going to battle…   

No. He’s saying I have made myself a servant to all – a servant to the religious leadership who hated him… a servant to the unbelievers who maligned him… a servant to the church who often misunderstood him… a servant to the weak… a servant to the strong…

Paul passionately believed he had something worth sharing. And he shared it the same way Jesus had, by loving, serving, giving…

May you and I ever remember that we have something worth sharing. 

I am reminded that it is important to share our own story – where we’ve found hope and life and renewal. We know that most people come to faith and get involved in a church by the invitation of others. But at the same time, our words mean nothing if our actions and lives have already spoken.

Let us pray: We thank you, gracious God, for the many ways that you have touched and blessed our lives. Grant us listening ears and servant hearts, that we might meet the needs of those around us, and share your Gospel in word and in deed. Amen.