In Thankfulness

Today is Thanksgiving and I am reflecting on all of the things that I am thankful about. Like most people I am thankful for family, a home, friends and amazing encounters with God and the people that He continually brings into my life. But today I am also thankful for failure.

Failure is a teacher like no other. It confronts us where we do not want to be confronted.  When a relationship fails we have a choice to blame others, or to consider that the common denominator in all of our failed relationships is “me” and therefore I need to let failure teach me something and examine my ways. When we fail financially we can blame the market, our business partner, God, or some outside circumstance, or we can again use it as an opportunity to examine our methods. Was it really all of those things? Or maybe we did not plan enough, work smart enough, or learn a lesson that needed to be learned. Maybe we need to ask some hard questions and reflect on the answers and make plans accordingly.

Failure is an opportunity to acknowledge our mistake and move forward. If we ignore it and stumble yet again back into the same process we get to repeat that failure. I am reminded of Moses taking the people of Israel around the same mountain again and again for a 40 year period. I have always personally preferred the Jonah 3 Day Method over the Moses Mountain Method. 3 days of absolute hell but you have no choice but to confront your demons and deal with your heart because there is no way out but real humility. It is in that moment of absolute and complete failure that we can actually admit defeat and ask for forgiveness and make real plans to change our ways. We get pretty committed to a different path when the one we are on is completely decimated before us.

I have always asked God to teach me quickly and in many things I have been graced to be a quick learner. There has been one issue though that continually has be looking at the mountain. This week I had a revelation that I need to stop telling God how big the mountain is, and start telling the mountain how BIG my God is! This week I am thankful for the failure because I finally put myself into the position of being swallowed by the whale. So it is a day of repentance and change. One can accept the defeat and death of being eaten by the monster or one can examine their deviated path, and make a course correction while crying out to the Creator who has the ability to add His Super to our natural and create something remarkable.

I am thankful for failure. It is a key to learning quickly if we acknowledge the failure and look deeply within to change the results that are going out. I am also thankful for interesting and wise men and women who have come into my life and shared valuable insights that I could learn from in those critical "belly of the whale" moments.

Rejoice in all things, and again I say rejoice!

May you enjoy your Thanksgiving time with your family, and may you  find thankfulness in all things.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George