A friend doing a residency in a specialty medical field wrote on her Facebook page, “sometimes, your best is just not good enough. Today I learned the lesson the hard way.”I did not ask specifics but could hear the discouragement in her message. All of us face the reality in life that our efforts are not always going to realize the outcome we want. In high school and college, I was an ace in algebra but when I hit geometry I faced an obstacle I could not conquer. No matter how hard I studied I struggled to make a C. My A’s were a distant memory. It was just such a frustrating time for me. I wrote my friend these words of encouragement. “All we are asked to do is to show up for the battle and try our very best. That does not mean our efforts will be perfect but we will learn lessons from this struggle to make us stronger for the next confrontation. Hang in there!” The good news in my geometry battle is I never quit trying. The next year I faced logarithms and trigonometry and I aced each semester. Go figure! We need to teach our children and ourselves the gift of grit and de-termination in the face of defeat. It is to easy to quit the hard stuff and only do what comes easy for us. We also can fall into the blame game. We need to remember God only asks us to try, God is in charge of outcomes.
Pastor Pam The Aldersgate Experience October 27th, 2013