Welcome to this devotional day 5.
I hope you make mistakes.
I hope that in this year to come you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes,
Then you are making new things,
Trying new things,
Learning,
Living,
Pushing yourself,
Changing yourself,
Changing your world.
You are doing things you've never done before.
And more importantly,
You are doing something.
Quote from Neil Gaiman.
Meditation.
It's a strange wish for the new year,
Wishing someone will make mistakes.
Usually we wish for others to obtain the good stuff,
Happiness,
Prosperity,
Luck.
So why wish they will make mistakes?
Simply,
If we make mistakes,
We are making a new thing,
Trying a new thing,
Learning,
Living and pushing ourselves.
We are changing and we are changing our world.
That can't happen without our making genuine mistakes.
This refers not to intentional mistakes,
But to those mistakes that happen when we try something we have not done or tried before.
These are mistakes we make because our intentions are to make things better.
But we discover that our intentions and the outcomes don't match.
Or they are mistakes that sometimes come with the anxiety of changing.
If we make mistakes and are open to learning from them,
We learn and change.
We actually are being courageous.
Genuine,
Unintended mistakes can be easily forgiven,
As they are byproducts of trying something new.
And so we dare imperfection and dare to make mistakes while we are on our way.
And as we are on our way,
We keep our eyes on the goal of becoming more loving and more accepting of ourselves and of others,
Just like Jesus was.
And the Bible verse that I'm bringing today is Philippians 3,
Verses 12-14.
There Paul says,
I'm not saying that I have it all together,
That I have it made,
But I'm well on my way reaching out for Christ who has so wondrously reached out for me.
Friends,
Don't get me wrong.
By no means do I count myself an expert of all safe things,
But I've got my eye on the goal that God is beckoning us onward to Jesus.
I'm off and running and I'm not turning back.
I'm saying a prayer.
God of new beginnings,
We ask you in these early days of the new year for courage to make mistakes,
To admit mistakes,
And to forgive mistakes.
We ask you also for the humility to know that we haven't figured out yet what your love in our lives really means,
And for patience with ourselves and others as we keep trying to become more like you.
Bless us and bless this new year.
Amen.
