Winston Churchill

I’m Still Here

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“You’re not a failure until you stop trying. If you have no other testimony you have this one: ‘I’m still here'” (Joyce Meyer).

Winston Churchill once said that success is never final and failure is never fatal, but it is the courage to continue that counts. Aside from some very impressive alliteration, there’s some good truth here.

So hooray for all of you who made it out of bed this morning when you felt an overwhelming desire to sleep in and give up on the day.

Hooray for all of you who adhere to the old motto that faith is believing when common sense tells you not to, or as the author of Hebrews puts it, it’s the “assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen (Hebrews 11:1, The Voice).

Hooray for those who doggedly adhere to that faith through trials and doubts and who have never given up on God because they know God has never given up on them.

Hooray for those who still dream after so many previous dreams have been dashed to pieces and who keep longing after their desires have been countlessly delayed and denied.

Hooray for those who persevere in the midst of pain and suffering while wearing a smile through it all.

Hooray for those whose only victory today might be the declaration “I’m still here.”

Not only will your endurance lead to a reward, you are leaving a legacy to those who follow to not give up.

After all, Advent is all about how waiting on God’s best is always always worth it.

 

True Wisdom

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“Reverence for the Eternal, the one True God, is the beginning of wisdom; true knowledge of the Holy One is the start of understanding” (Proverbs 9:10, VOICE).

This is it. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, or as this version puts it, reverence and awe for God are the beginning of wisdom.

These days, there is a lot of knowledge and a scarcity of wisdom. You can know a lot of facts about a lot of things and it not do you much good. Wisdom is what you do with what you know.

For me, wisdom begins when I admit that I don’t know much. Wisdom happens when I confess that I know a lot less than I thought I did at one point.

The Bible also says that if any of you lack wisdom, let that person ask God, who gives it generously. So maybe I should ask for it more.

I think wisdom starts when I make a declaration of dependence. It’s me acknowledging that  I don’t have all the answers, that I am not Mr. With-It, and that I need help most days. I need God’s help every day.

Ultimately, wisdom is knowing that it’s not about me at all. It’s ultimately about God and what He’s doing in the world.

Wisdom is knowing that failure and mistakes can actually be a good thing if they lead to changed behavior and more of a desperation for God to act on our behalf. Wisdom knows that failure is never fatal but the courage to continue is what counts (one Mr. Churchill also said that a while back).

So I’m praying for wisdom, which is one of the smartest decisions that King Solomon ever made. Marrying all those foreign women? Not so much. Asking for wisdom? You can never ever go wrong with that.