Romans 5:3, Philippians 1:6

Josiah Parr reflects on the lessons that can be learned through our mistakes.

Josiah Parr

A week before I started high school, I was swimming in our pool and my sister jumped into it, landed on me and chipped my front tooth. I came out of the water screaming; it was seriously painful. Once the pain had subsided I was left with a ridiculous looking broken front tooth.

To top off the chipped tooth, my blazer was three times too big, possibly because it was a hand me down and my school bag was massive. I had asked my parents for a different one, but they insisted on this particular bag. Then, to make matters worse my mum decided to iron my tie, which promptly melted. I began my high school life in the worst imaginable way...chipped tooth, oversized blazer, huge school bag and no tie.

I was (and still am) the type of person who loves to start things well; I always ruled a two-centimetre margin on the side of my page and wrote in the neatest possible handwriting that I could possibly produce. So a beginning like this really wasn't what I had planned.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when I came back to work after the summer holidays. My intern Jess and I began all the planning and design for the year ahead. As we dreamed we got more and more excited. We planned a launch night for youth and parents to come along to, had calendars printed, designed a photo booth and we even got banners made.

The day the banners arrived we set them up and we were both super proud, they looked incredible! I called my wife to come and have a look and after the initial "wows" she changed her tune to "oh no's!" Jess and I both insisted that it wasn't funny and that she should stop pretending and then the mistake caught my eye. Right in the centre of our beautiful new banner was a massive spelling mistake!!! We had spelt Psalm - Pslam!! We were devastated, Jess began to cry and I had to walk away. How did we miss this? We had spent hours looking at this design, but somehow managed to miss what was right in front of our face.

Starting badly can often create a question of, "What is the point?" It's so easy to throw your hands up in surrender and be beaten by the problem.

'We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.' Romans 5:3

I don't know about you, but I find it ridiculously difficult to rejoice because something has gone wrong! I'm all about celebrating a win, or a job well done and not convinced that when everything is going wrong it could be an opportunity to rejoice. In this scripture Paul doesn't just tell us to rejoice though, he tells us why to rejoice and what not giving up produces in us.

Endurance
1. The ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.
2. The capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear.

I think it's important to not be a knocked down passive generation. If things are hard, let's not use that as an excuse to throw our hands up and give up! We need to be tougher than the trials that are ahead because it produces in us the ability to endure and that produces strength of character.

Strength of character
"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it." Maya Angelou

Strength only comes by repetition. Think of a weight lifter in a gym. On day one his strength may not appear to have changed, but over time the weight that used to prove difficult suddenly becomes easy to carry. The more the weight lifter continues this process the more strength is produced. If the weight lifter only remains lifting the weight that is comfortable, they don't increase in strength, they remain the same.

It's in the uncomfortable moments outside of our comfort zone where we increase our strength. Hard times have a habit of knocking us down and reducing us to tears, so it's in these moments we must choose who we want to be.

Mo Farah in the Rio Olympics 10,000 metre final was knocked down just a few laps into the race, BUT he got back up and ran to not only complete the race, but to win it. Mo's strength of character was not built on that day, but was evidence of thousands of hours rising early, practising, building his strength, eating well, overcoming injury and pain.

Hope
'And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Philippians 1:6

We started and failed, but somehow came out hopeful for the future. God is able to take our failure and imperfections and turn them into something that gives us hope for all that's ahead.

So even if your best laid plans have failed and you don't think you can possibly keep going, today is your day! Beginning badly doesn't mean ending badly, there is hope and strength, which will lift you up and give you strength.