Failure Is Not Fatal (Thoughts From Catalyst)

I really enjoy reading Seth Godin. I’ve written about him before. If you remember, Seth is not a professing believer and his audience is not necessarily the church, but anyone who likes big ideas and challenging leadership principles.

It was a privilege to get to hear him speak at this year’s Catalyst conference. It made me ready to read his latest book, Linchpin, even more. Here’s one (of the many ideas) Seth discussed at the conference.

The first time you bake cupcakes, you follow the recipe. And the cupcakes are good.

The second time, you get better at following the recipe and they turn out really good.

The third time, you might improvise and screw up.

Learning your lesson, you will follow the recipe again and again as closely as you can.

At this point, by the fifth or sixth time, some people improvise successfully and actually learn to bake. In the process they learn this: cupcake failure is not fatal.

That seems so elementary. Of course nothing really bad happens if you try something new but fail on a batch of cupcakes. But in today’s world, leaders can become paralyzed due to fear of failure or more so, as Seth wrote about in his book Tribes, the fear of criticism. That in itself can cause us to stop baking altogether instead of whipping up another batch of cupcakes.

Fear of failure or criticism can keep us from moving forward. We think we’ll get in trouble or replaced if we mess up. But the irony of it is we won’t do anything, which will…get us in trouble or replaced.

The question to ask yourself in these moments is this:

Which is worse: I do something and fail or I do absolutely nothing at all?

99.999% of the time the second option is much worse.

Here’s the thing (and I’m talking to myself here): we have a great responsibility. Eternity is in the balance. Souls are at stake. But it’s not up to us to save them. That falls on the Holy Spirit. We just have to be obedient. So when you fail, take what you learned from that attempt and improve on the next one. Be prepared to fail in order to succeed. Thomas Edison has been credited with this quote:

“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

The only real failure is doing nothing at all.

Know Who You Are (Thoughts From Catalyst)

At  Catalyst, we were fortunate to hear Beth Moore speak. Now, I’ll be honest: I’ve never read Beth Moore or even heard her speak on television. I didn’t really know anything about her except that she writes a lot of books for women and they seem to like her. But I was pretty skeptical about what she was going to share that would apply to me. Boy, was I surprised. Her talk was definitely a highlight for me. God used her to speak to me on fear and insecurity.

There’s so much I could write about from her talk (and I’ll probably write more later) but the one thing I want to hit on now from her talk that made an impact on me was this:

“Know who you are and know who you are not. Know who you want to be when all is said and done.”

1. Know who you are

Know what you stand for and that God created you for a purpose. He has a calling for you and filled with you with the potential to fullfil that mission for your life. Through Him, it’s all possible (Philippines 4:13).

2. Know who you are not

I’m bad for trying to measure up to other people. I’m sure I’m the only one that does that but I try to emulate what others are doing in their walk with Christ. I hear about people who can pray for an hour, I try to do that. Others say you should journal everyday, I try that. Meanwhile, I have not just talked with God about how He wants to converse with me. I’m starting to figure out that a very important part of our walk with Christ is knowing who He has created us not to be. We can usually accomplish more and be more effective by doing less.

I’m not called to walk with Christ like someone else, I’m called to have a personal relationship with Him. He created me. He knows how I’m wired so I need to be me and not someone else.

3. Know who you want to be when all is said and done

It’s like a roadtrip. It takes turn after turn to get to the final destination. You can’t get from Martinsville to Miami without following directions and making multiple turns. And each turn leads to the next. That’s what following Christ is all about: following His directions to a final destination. And the trip goes much smoother when we follow the directions as they are laid out. The directions don’t always keep you from traffic jams or rough roads, but they will lead you where you want to go if you follow them. It’s when we miss a turn or follow our own hunches that things start to get tricky.

The legacy we leave is determined now. The decisions we make now are writing our story, good or bad. And it’s important that we decide how we want the ending to be ahead of time and make decisions  today that will get us to that destination.

Evaluation (Thoughts From Catalyst)

Daniel Pink, a business leader and author, spoke on Thursday about motivation. And he gave some great insight to what drives us or gives us the passion to keep going.

Most of his talk was geared toward the business world but I believe his thoughts can apply to the church as an organization and certainly helps us create our staff culture at CrossPoint. There’s so much good stuff from his talk that I still need to process and work through. And I’m eager to read his book Drive.

But there was one thought I want to work through: I believe evaluation breeds excellence. And Daniel wrapped up his talk with this idea:

“At the end of the day, ask yourself this: ‘was I better today than yesterday?’ When the answer is yes, you can celebrate your accomplishment and roll that momentum into tomorrow. When the answer is no, it gives you a drive to get up in the morning and have a better tomorrow.”

Have you ever asked yourself that? What are you doing today to improve, little by little, over yesterday? What will you read today? What prayers will you pray? Who will you meet? What conversations will you have? What will you practice that will allow you to improve on yesterday’s achievements or failures?

Start asking yourself this question at the end of your day and I believe it will jump start your personal growth in your job, with your family and, most of all, your walk with Christ.

“Next Step” After Graduation

Last night, we attended Sheridan’s pre-school graduation program.  She did a fantastic job.  Sheridan is definitely an extrovert who loves being on stage to sing and dance in front of people.  She does not take after her dad (which I believe is a good thing).  She said her Bible verse very well (Romans 3:23) and sang at the top of her lungs in each song.  It was a proud day for me as a father but also a little sad since this means she’s growing up.  Next is elementary school in the fall.  Sheridan is very excited about going to a new school.

While pondering this last night, the Holy Spirit spoke to me.  Elementary school is a “next step” for Sheridan.  And she’s excited about taking it!  But there are Christians who haven’t taken their next step in their Christian walk due to fear, complacency, or just laziness.  What if we allowed Sheridan to continue attending pre-school year after year?  She would never be stretched or grow in knowledge and wisdom.  She would remain at the pre-school level as the years go by.  Sadly in our local churches we have people who met Christ decades ago but remain spiritual pre-schoolers.

If that’s you, I have great news!  If the Holy Spirit is leading you in a next step (baptism, regular giving, having a daily quiet time, serving in the local church, discipleship of a new believer, etc., etc.) God has already worked it out.  When you actually receive that, it makes taking that step a little easier.  Sure there may be some work involved and you might mess it up at first, but if He’s calling you to it, then He will take responsibility for the outcome.  Charles Stanley says this: God takes full responsibility for the live fully devoted to Him. And that’s so cool! That’s where I want to be: in the will of God.  It’s definitely not always comfortable or safe, but it is no longer about me trying to achieve, it’s about what God has already worked out.  And that’s my prayer for you.

You already know what God is calling you to do.  Take that next step and trust in His promises to take care of the result.