ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS EVER

Restricted access area - “Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make very small use of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.”

We ALL fail!

And I'm not talking about your latest baking disaster or losing a game of "Scrabble." We fail in some important areas. We may fail at a significant relationship. We may fail at a job. We may fail at doing something we are convinced we were meant to do! We all fail. And sometimes we fail in pretty spectacular ways.

Baseball player Lou Brock said something important about failure. Brock once held the record for stolen bases. He was about 35 years old at the time and his days as a professional player were winding down. Brock was talking about why he successfully stole more bases than younger, faster players.

"When you start out in baseball," Brock said, "you're young and you have the speed and reflexes. However, when you try to steal second base and you get thrown out, it's a long walk back to the dugout with 40,000 fans watching you. When you reach my age, you come to understand that records are not set by being the quickest, but by the willingness to look bad in the eyes of others."

When Brock became willing to look bad in the eyes of 40,000 fans, he broke the chains of fear and experienced true freedom. (He probably also played better!) He learned how to do ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS EVER: he learned how to put failure behind him.

Unless we learn how to put failure behind us:

· We will never ask for what we need for fear of rejection.

· We will never ask a boss for a promotion for fear of her saying no.

· We will never go back and take classes for fear of failing.

· We will never change careers for fear of it not working out.

· We will never forgive others who hurt us for fear of being hurt by them again.

· We won't do the things we want to do for fear of letting ourselves and others down.

Unless we learn how to put failure behind us, we won't take any risk at all! And we'll never fully live, either.

The Bible talks about forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Learn to put your failures behind you and you can go places you never dreamed possible.

From Lifesupport.