How to Keep Failure from Ruining Your Goals
Three weeks into January, and I’ve already faltered on my New Year Resolutions. Anyone else? 🙋🏻♀️
I want to run two days per week… FAIL
I want to read every day… FAIL
I want to practice guitar once per week… FAIL
Sometimes we feel like we get a fresh start, like a new year or a career change, and not too far in, we lose our footing. I know for me, it is easy to get down on myself for faltering in things I’ve decided to do. Negative self-talk webs its way into my head. I convince myself I don’t really need to make progress on these things. Or worse - I tell myself I’ll never be able to achieve these goals, so why try. My hesitancy of regaining control of my goals leaves me in purgatory, unsure which step to take next. I am frozen.
The Point of Failure
I am not the only one given a second chance, or third or fourth, to start over. I resonate with the Israelites constant vacillation, up to their high points like King David’s reign all the way down to low points, which led them into Exile.
When I was a kid, my mom loved watching The Ten Commandments, and whenever I read the Exodus story, I can’t help but picture Charlton Heston and his long white beard (not historically accurate, but that’s for another post). After the great moments, like Moses turning the water to blood or the famous parting of the Red Sea, he and the Israelites stop at Mt. Sinai. Known as the place where Moses met God and received the Ten Commandments, there is a palpable reverence reading this passage of Scripture. This was the birthing of a nation into FREEDOM. Here was their clean slate, their do-over, their opportunity to set some real goals to make a future for themselves.
But Moses took a long time up on the mountain. They were restless for someone else to give them direction of what they should do and who they should follow. Rather than taking this time to praise God and embracing their new freedom, they set up a party. They demanded Aaron (Moses’ brother) build them a god to worship, and he complied a golden calf. They lost sight of what they had been longing for the previous 400 years - freedom - and that freedom was given for them to bring glory to their God. Instead, they chose to stay in their bondage of bad choices.
Second Chances
The story of the Israelites is a long one, full of twists and turns. There are unexpected plot twists which leave us on the edge of our seat. Even though God knew what was ahead, He didn’t just wipe them out that day at the foot of Mt. Sinai. He gave opportunity over and over again for the Israelites to choose their way. He directed their steps forward, allowing them to follow Him.
This is the God I serve.
How do I overcome the failure? I rise and remember my guilt and shame doesn’t come from God. He provides opportunity and guidance to me each day I seek it. When I misstep or fail, He is there to lift me and set my feet on solid ground. He gives me new mercies each day, a reminder given to me in the midst of a book of lamenting.
If you look at a defeated goal from your past, recent or long ago, rise to a new day. Let go of why it didn’t work out before. It doesn’t matter if you were irresponsible or if someone stole away your dream. Hold it before God and ask Him if the time is now to pick this up into your tomorrow. Believe that He wants your freedom to pursue the desires of your heart. It’s only after we wrestle through our own heart issues that we can stand up, brush off the dust, and move forward.
How can I pray for you as you pick up your goal today? Could you shoot me an email and let me know? I love to hear from you!
