Happy Tuesday, Friends!
This week, I decided to switch things up a little bit. After reading through the chapters through for this week, I found myself returning over and over again to the topic of…
failure and overcoming difficult situations.
In Chapter 3, Matthew is faced with one of the biggest challenges of his life when he is asked to resign from the job and the Church that he has been a leader of for many many years. Any change of this magnitude fills us with a myriad of emotions from anger, hurt, fear, and a sense of loss. In his own words he describes his situation and says,
Brokenness is part of God’s plan for real healing, someone else said. That didn’t help either. So I walked alone. I stood on a bluff one day overlooking the blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean and there, with the wind in my face, I wept.
I don’t know about you, but these are words that I can identify with. Like Matthew, when I am feeling down, or faced with a seemingly impossible situation I always go outside. I love the feel of the breeze and the sun on my face and there is something undeniably calming about being in nature.
I think that it’s important to remind ourselves that we each fail. We each face challenges. And at some point we will all be disappointed. To me, this is so important because when we are in the midst of these situation we often feel extremely isolated. We feel as though no one has ever felt this way or experienced what we are going through. However, that’s absolutely not true. We might not be in your specific circumstance. However, we still know how you’re feeling. And when I say ‘we’ I mean you, me, and God. We all get it.
The second point that I want to focus on is forgiveness. In case you are still getting caught up with the reading, after Matthew is asked to resign from his job, several months later the elders who asked him to resign are able to see the error in their actions. They then humbly and honestly ask for his forgiveness. As Matthew describes in the book
I was completely disarmed. What he said was consistent with what I sensed from the moment I walked in. But even so, these words pierced through whatever guard I had left. There is something about humility, something that happens in the presence of true remorse. If defuses your defenses. It extinguishes your need for retaliation. Whatever thoughts you might have about revenge evaporate
There is so much power in being self-aware enough to realize when you are wrong and then having the courage to admit that to the person or persons that you have wronged. We all experience failure over and over throughout life.
While this weeks reading was not entirely easy, I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Action Steps:
- Read Chapters 5 & 6 before next Tuesday
- Think about a time in your own life where you experienced change, fear, or failure like Matthew. What did you learn from that situation and how did it make you the person that you are today?
- Check back on the blog next Tuesday for a post of Chapters 5 & 6
If you are checking out the book club for the first time feel free to review our previous weeks below:
Have a wonderful week!
Photo Via Jensine Lee
