“If you’re not failing every now and then, it’s a sign you
aren’t doing anything very innovative.”
— Woody Allen, writer and film director
It took me a little bit of thought and I finally arrived back at Monday after reading this quote. Back at the at one of the “pre” words from what I wrote on Monday: prepare. Why do I prepare? Usually it is so that I don’t fail at something. Maybe “fail” is not always the right word. Maybe “so that I am better at something”. Okay, is that really that different?
Often times I do not try something “new” because I think I might fail, even if I prepare. And sometimes I don’t do things just because I think I might look foolish trying it. Uh, imagine looking foolish AND failing. Oh, what is that phrase? Comfort zone. I do like things within my comfort zone. I am successful at those things. I want more things to be in my comfort zone. Yet how does that happen if I don’t innovate? One definition for “innovation” is “the introduction of something new”. I’d be much happier if my SPIRITUAL comfort zone was larger. Imagine Christ’s work that I would be doing then!
I have to be willing to fail, even to look foolish.
How do those thoughts fit with these words:
2 Corinthians 12:10
“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
My daily walk with Christ requires me to be innovative. I have to look at things differently than I have been taught by the world. Isn’t that what He wants of me? Requires of me. “Strength in weakness”? I don’t remember that class. “Delight in difficulties”? If at all, most of us learn that well after the fact… if we are lucky and CHOOSE to delight. It just doesn’t happen. Look at how the verse above begins “for Christ’s sake”. I am so glad the writer of Corinthians stuck that in there just for me. FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. Not for my sake. Or for my comfort. Or for my just wanting to be lazy today.
Christ requires each us to be innovative. May His Spirit be with me, and with you, as we share Christ. Not just with those “new” to Him, but with other believers. We each are new creations in Him and have so much to share. And may His Spirit always whisper in my ear those three words, “for Christ’s sake”.