Mistake Makers

Do you ever get frustrated with your computer? Does it take forever to boot up? Does it ever lose your documents when you were so close to finishing them? What about software conflicts? Viruses? Hard drive problems? Interestingly enough we expect our computers to operate flawlessly when these very machines were created by human minds. Sure they get more powerful, faster and look better. But they always have issues…and don’t even throw out the “MAC vs. PC” issue. They all break…period.

It’s funny how we humans have the same idea we should operate socially like a piece of machinery. We expect perfection from human minds when everything we create is flawed!

When I was 19 the world was black and white…right and wrong were easy to determine. But as I got older some of those issues became “gray”. Experience with others and mainly dissatisfaction with myself has taught me we’re all one decision away from a mistake. Maybe it’ll cost us a little pain or maybe it will cost us our life. But one thing is for sure: I’m going to make another mistake. No matter how much I want my friends and family to think I’m God’s gift to Man…I keep proving I’m not. I think I understand the Apostle Paul in the New Testament when he is frustrated that “I do the things I don’t want to do and I don’t do the things I want to do”. Sounds like a mistake maker to me. In fact every person we read about in the Bible is quite human. In other words, they all screwed up at one time or another! Guess what… we’re all in that same club: The Mistake Makers.

When I was growing up my father had a statement he would say right after I had made some stupid mistake: “Well, did you learn anything?” I hated that statement. It never made me feel any better. In fact I usually felt like more of a failure! But the premise of it wasn’t bad. I made a mistake, learn from it, and go on from here. Not bad advice to a kid that almost set the house on fire in the kitchen. But that’s another story…

I used to think that one day I would get it all together and be smarter and the mistakes would be fewer. I’m not sure I’ve done any of that. Sometimes I feel like I’m going backwards! But I keep going…

So what’s my point? You are going to make mistakes. You’re going to regret them, be embarrassed by them and want to stick your head in the sand until the pain goes away. But when you eventually pull your head out of the sand you will still be stuck with the same problem: you.

So give yourself a break. Forgive yourself and move on. If God decided to include others mistakes in the Bible then there must be something to be gained from making them. Mistakes are a part of life and hopefully along the way others will learn from what we do wrong. Just remember what Dad said: “Well, did ya learn anything?”