Practice #2 - May 4

May 4, 2008


V.I.P.
(Vision. Information. Prayer.)

P.R.A.C.T.I.C.E. Definition: A custom or habit of doing something.


Risking failure through innovation and reinvention of programs.

Joshua 1:9
I have commanded you, 'Be strong and courageous! Don't tremble or be terrified, because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.'


Thomas Edison, great inventor, set out to create an electric light. The first one he made didn't work. Neither did the second or the tenth, or the 100th or even the 1000th. But Edison didn't give up. He was willing to risk failure because he knew that eventually he would find the right combination of materials that would succeed, and that when he did succeed it would be a HUGE success. Each time his light bulb didn't work, he didn't look at it as a failure, he looked as it as a learning process. He now knew what wouldn't work! Each time he was one step closer to success. Finally, somewhere around the 10,000th time, he succeeded. And can you imagine how much greater his victory and his excitement then, than if it had worked the 2nd or 3rd time?
Edison wasn't afraid to risk failure and to reinvent and rework what he was doing until he got it right! He was just making light. How much more should we be willing to risk failure and keep working and reinventing when what we're working on, kids and families lives, their eternities are at stake?
The way we do things at Kid Crossing and at Crossroads rarely stays the same for very long. The reason is that we want to find the very best way to change lives for eternity. As we bring this school year to a close, and look towards the summer and next school year, we will be reinventing some aspects of what we do. Every time we do that we risk failure, but every time we fail, we can look at it as one step closer to achieving the ultimate success! Risking failure isn't easy. I HATE to fail! But the victory of success when we finally succeed makes taking that risk totally worth it!

Question for this week:
What are you willing to Risk failing at in order to make what you're doing better:
At church?
At home?
At work?

Quote:
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt