Look to the Next Challenge

Last night, the Colorado Rockies suffered the last in a long line of losses that eliminates any chance for them to make it to the playoffs this year. As I watched the post game report, it hurt my heart to watch those players interviewed express their discouragement, knowing their dream of world series competition had faded away. However, in the background, fans continued to cheer. Despite the disappointment of last night, I glimpsed a spirit of hope for the 2011 season rather than remorse over the games played in 2010.

I lay awake until late last night thinking about what I had posted in yesterday's blog as opposed to the attitude I saw at Coors Field last evening. We all have disappointments. We all fail. We all fall short of the goals we hope to achieve in one way or another. That doesn't mean we should dwell on the past. It doesn't mean we should fear failure in the future. It certainly doesn't mean we should quit reaching for those seemingly unattainable goals.

One of my favorite lines of all time comes from a Gunsmoke episode entitled The Guns of Cibola Blanca - Part I. The line is spoken by actor Milburn Stone, playing the part of the ever wise Doc Adams. "Any failure is unimportant if you don't surrender to it." Isn't that a great philosophy!

I just did a word search for "failure" in the Bible. Know how many times I found it? Once. And even then, it is referred to in a positive connotation. It is found in I Thessalonians 2:1 and Paul is speaking. "You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure." On the other hand, I found three pages of references to the word "success".

God doesn't want us to fail, but when we do, He doesn't want us to dwell on that failure. He wants us to take the time to figure out what went wrong, do something to fix it, then try again. He stands by us during our failures and rejoices in our success.

As the Colorado Rockies chalk up the 2010 season and look to 2011, I put behind me Sunday's failure and look toward devoting my energy to the success of tomorrow's ventures.

Thanks for reading my blog!

The Measure of Success

I have a great deal of admiration for those who, despite commitments of family, work, community activities, and numerous other obligations, can manage to write on a daily basis. Try as I may, I can’t do it.

These past three months have been tough. My mother-in-law passed away in August, just a month short of her 90th birthday. We had to euthanize our beloved German Shepherd/Chow mix of 15 years in October. My brother-in-law passed away in November. A dear friend has been dealing with serious health problems since July. Add to that the fact that I managed to contract walking pneumonia, had an allergic reaction to the medications, and had inflammation in the rib area for days from coughing so much. Seems on the days when I felt like writing, I was too busy with other things, and on the days when I had time, I felt lousy.

Yet, I look at others who have so much more on their plate than I do, small children at home, a full time job, stressful family situations, and they manage to stay faithful to a writing schedule.

My thought for November is a quote from John Foster Dulles, who served as Secretary of State during President Dwight D.Eisenhower’s administration. “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”

My tough problem has carried over through many years, so I guess the measure of my success at this point is pretty poor in the writing world, anyway.. And it is more than one.

Disorganization.

Procrastination.

Fear of failure.

So, my goal for the rest of this year is to eliminate at least one of those tough problems. Despite the everyday obstacles that always manage to creep into the middle of the road, I plan to barrel around them and forge ahead.

There was a discussion on the ACFW loop a while ago about giving up writing. Can’t do that. Don’t think the Lord wants me to. So, if writing success is one of the goals I am meant to accomplish in this lifetime, I better set my mind to getting busy and doing just that.

Thanks for reading my blog!