“What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”
It’s the sentiment on a pewter paperweight in a pretty paged catalogue I received last week. Tis the season, you know.
I’m a sucker for cool quotations (and shiny catalogues). I guess that is the wordsmith in me, but it caught my eye and sprouted wings into my soul. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what that would look like in my life.
What would I do if I knew I could not fail? Pray more? Tell more friends and family and total strangers about Jesus? Play the lottery? Invent a cure for cancer or the common cold? Climb a mountain? Write a book? Change my hairstyle? Change my life? Oh, the possibilities are endless.
If I would not, could not fail, to put a Dr. Suess spin on things, what would I do? I get energized just thinking about it, don’t you?
Wisdom from Madison Avenue to change your life.
And then I remember the words of Jesus…..
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11
“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.” Matthew 6:33
Now, that is wisdom that does not fail. Wisdom that truly can change my life whether I climb a mountain or cure the common cold.
Why do we worry about failure? Why do we fear? Why do we let those fears keep us from greatness? “Greater is He who is in me than He who is in the world.” We quote it, but do we live it?
Jesus told us to be of good cheer. In this world there will be trouble but He has overcome the world. It is a win/win!
The key is to live as if I cannot fail because whatever happens, if I am following hard after Him, I win!
Last Sunday, Pastor David asked us a sobering question. Why does it take something life changing like cancer to make us truly change our lives and live for Him. He was sharing about his aunt who is diagnosed with cancer and how she is hanging on to God with all she has.
That is great news! He is the anchor that holds when the storm comes, but does it have to be stormy weather that makes us choose to live with no regrets?
It shouldn’t, but often it does. Wouldn’t it be better to choose today to live bigger than life for Him than to wait until your days are numbered.
Because, whether we know it or not, they are.
So this Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of Christ, how will you live? He came to give us life and life abundantly. Let’s not demean the gift He gave by living a small life. His rag tag band of followers turned the world upside down.
I think it is time we did it again. There is a lost and dying world just waiting for the Good News. Will it come through you?
“What would you do 
if you knew you could not fail?”
