I was watching a movie the other day called “Mr. Baseball”. It stars Tom Selleck as a washed up baseball player that gets traded from a team here the US to a Japanese baseball club. Nothing special, just a good way to kill an hour and a half. But while watching it, I saw something that really spoke to me. As he was playing in Japan he got more and more annoyed with his teammates and his coach. The problem was the way their culture viewed not loosing face to the people. The coach would never let his players slide to catch a ball, or dive for a save. They were so worried about failure that they never tried anything that could lead to failure.
It struck me how we do the same thing with our ministries so many times, and even on a broader scale, we do it with our own lives. It saddens me to see churches never do anything big to change the world because they MIGHT fail. And how many times have we, in our own lives, not done that thing that seemed a little crazy, or scary because we thought we may not be successful. How many incredible ideas or thoughts have gone unused because we were scared to lose face. The problem with this is we do it and don’t even notice. Because we don’t fail, we assume we are doing everything right. But because we never push the limits, we are also never doing anything that brings great reward.
“Jesus now called the Twelve and gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases. He commissioned them to preach the news of God's kingdom and heal the sick. He said, "Don't load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you're not welcomed, leave town. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and move on." Luke 9:1-5 The Message
There was a scene where Tom Selleck’s character went to the coaches house and he told him what he really thought of his coaching. He told his coach how great his team was. How much talent there was on the field. But since the coach was so afraid of looking bad to the public, he never got to see the real talent they had been given. He had a line that really rang true to me. He said, “Why don’t you let these guys try and stretch a double into a triple? They might just surprise you.”.
The fact is, how many people work under you in ministry that you never give the chance to fail? How many times have you stopped yourself from doing something because you may fail yourself? The truth is, without failure, you never get to see what you are capable of. We have a fear of failure. But failure isn’t a bad thing. In fact, if in your life and ministry you are not failing at something, then I think you are wasting the talent. How many times does the bible talk about our walk with Christ being a race? Last time I watched a race, there was a winner, and there were losers.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” Hebrews 12: 1 NIV
Some people fail, while others triumph. When you decide not to give yourself a chance to win big, it is like you never got in the race in the first place. We should be trying things that are scary and have room for failure all the time. Cmon, stretch that double into a triple. You may just surprise yourself.
peace – love – recycle
