In 2020 I heard something in a podcast speaking about failure. We were literally in the middle of a pandemic, eight months after I purchased a new business and we had just found out as we were getting ready to reopen that we were going to be shut down for another month. I felt my business failing with every breath I took after that news broke. Another failure. I failed to give my daughter a family, now we’re going to be broke in my parents’ house indefinitely too.
In the likeness of the Holy Spirit, I pulled into Country Rose for a coffee and pastry listening to this podcast from a year prior, as I was feeling failure yet again creeping in my life. God was showing me through the entirety of this shut down that He was not going to let me fail, He gave me people that were helping and willing to do so to accomplish a common goal in the place we loved.
Immediately I adopted the mentality that we only fail when we choose to stop trying something new. The moment we lose our imagination and drive to do a new thing, that is the moment we fail. Until then, it’s just another go at a game rigged in our favor.
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 3:14 NIV
Truthfully I don’t believe that failure exists, and even before this moment I never really believed in defeat. Now, in Christ, failure is an absolute and complete illusion. A mirage the enemy used to render us weak and lacking the hope found in Jesus.
“I can’t lose unless I quit.“
The past 12 months of my life have been so trying. Rewiring my brain. Making a commitment to live the way the Lord expects me to. Saying yes, and learning to say no. I will do anything but quit. I will keep fighting knowing that there’s always another opportunity to be taken, knowing that the Lord equips us and we just have to be ready to take it when it presents itself- even, and especially when we don’t feel ready. If what you did yesterday didn’t allow you to accomplish what you had set out to do, do something different today. If what you did the past three years didn’t result in a life you want to be living today, do something else for the next three…and if in six months it doesn’t feel like you’re headed in the right direction…then do something else. Just don’t quit. Don’t be complacent. Don’t tell yourself a lie that you have to live the way that you have been living for the rest of your life. You have done new things your entire life and you have the rest of your life to continue to step into yet again something new. You have the rest of your life to create a new life, the life you want to be living.
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,”
Colossians 3:23 NKJV
One day at a time.
If today isn’t the best day, put yourself to bed early tonight, put the day away in the drawer of the past and do so meting new tomorrow.
Just don’t quit. And when you rise up tomorrow, get up and fight. As we know, He goes before us and He wins every battle.
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Saray Hernandez
Tribe Member
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