How To Fail Unsuccessfully

We are still in the throes of the twelve days of Christmas, and I have finally had the wits to realize that I have, alas, once again failed at the Christmas blogging challenge.  I made it just so far before finally crumbling in defeat.  And yet, did I fail?  True, my goal was not accomplished.  True, that means that I was thwarted in my dreams.  I set out with such high hopes and only made it to the third day of Christmas before falling silent.  And so I was defeated.  Yes, for all my confident speech at the onset, I must humbly come, with hat in hands, and beg your forgiveness for leading you to expect a performance that did not come.

But I did not fail.

For failure is only the nonexistence of an accomplishment.  Indeed, I did not accomplish that which I set out to accomplish, but I did not accomplish naught.  On three days of Christmas only did I write.  But that is three days more than I managed last year.  That is a quarter of the goal--twenty-five percent of the achievement--accomplished.  I am sure that I would be pleased if my true love presented me with a gift of a partridge, a trio of hens a la Francais, a pear tree, and a couple of doves with the mistaken belief that they are reptiles.  Presented with such a gift (which would cost $495: not a bad sum of money), I am confident that I would not derisively query, "Where's the rest?"

Therefore, dear readers, please do not do me this injustice.  I apologize for my defeat.  I congratulate myself on my accomplishment.  Please extend me the grace I would extend my true love.  For I did not succeed at failing.

Does that mean I failed?

Let Earth Receive Her King...

There is something so incredibly comforting about knowing that the world is out of my control...  I used to have a problem, used to try to micromanage the most ridiculous things, used to rage against disagreeable weather and uncomfortable events.  It was a cause of anger for me that the world did not run the way I wanted it to.  I had no qualms with posing challenges to God, demanding that He fulfill this request and this test in order for me to accept certain aspects of His nature.  And when He did not (because "you shall not test the Lord your God"), I grew further and further away from Him.

A lot has happened to me since then.  God has brought me multiple different experiences that first broke me in my pride and then rebuilt me in a path closer to a knowledge of God's nature.  I understand now—at least in a very limited human capacity—much more of Who God is than I ever have before.  And I know that He is King.  That is not only a title of royalty or a delineation of how much glory He deserves, but it is also a measure of His ability and authority.

If God is King, He is King of something.  The Bible is clear that that something is really everything.  God is King over the heavens and the earth.  Everything is under His feet, He holds everything in His hands.  He has complete control.  How magnificent is that?  There is a God Who controls everything, Who knows every tiny detail of every bit of life on this earth.  What is there for me to worry about?  Everything is under control.

Do you not feel the freedom of that?  No, I don't know what will happen tomorrow.  But He does.  And He is in complete control of everything.  The Bible says that He loves all the world.  That means that He has only our best interests at heart.  An all-powerful King Who desires nothing but the best for me?  Who can, and will, give me exactly what I need?  That is the King I would follow.  Hail the incarnate Deity!  Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive glory and honour and adoration now and forever!

How Silently, How Silently...

It's easy to look around at life and notice the most obvious ingredients to what makes you a rounded person.  Your job, your religion, your family, your friendships...  All these are integral parts of what makes you up as an individual.  But these are easily recognizable, because they have such an impact on your personality, your behavior, your thought processes.  There is no way I would be who I am if I had not grown up in Christian home with three sisters.  It is impossible, especially when you incorporate the complex characteristics and traits of each of my five family members into the equation.  These influences are so great that who my older sister is directly impacted who I have become.

But these are only the most obvious influences.  What about the smaller ones?  The tiny nuances of life that so quietly alter you, changing your life in such minuscule increments that you don't even notice the differences until they've already accumulated over a matter of years?  It's so easy to overlook the effect that your experiences, however small, have had on creating who you are.  And yet those influences—the music you listen to, the movies you watch, the books you read—shape you as easily as clay.  Even more than that, what you study, what instrument you play, what sport you participate in, all these have drastic consequences for who you are becoming.

Now, do not think I am exaggerating the influence these activities have.  I am not saying that if you begin taking guitar today, you will be a different person by the next week.  But the influence of your taking guitar will be felt in several years.  The methodical nature of guitar strumming and chords will eventually begin to impact your thought processes and view of the world, allowing you to better perceive order and patterns.

With such minuscule influences changing who you are, it is easy to forget what is changing you, silently rewiring your brain to become who God meant you to be.  May God grant all of us the ability to perceive and arrange our influences so that me might better become godly examples.

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas...

I admit it.  I wanted snow for Christmas.  I woke up, and before my eyes opened I took in the stillness, listening, straining, wishing that there were some way I could see with my ears.  I opened my eyes and pulled aside my shades, peeking out into the world beyond my quiet, dark little room.  And that world was devoid of the snow I was hoping for.  And yet...  I was not disappointed...  I knew then that this would be a beautiful day, one full of Christmas cheer, perhaps not in the way I expected, but in a wholly new, unexpected way.

Isn't that where God works?  In the new, the unexpected?  In that sudden turn in the road you didn't expect, where you suddenly find yourself looking out over a vista you could never have dreamed you'd see?  No, that didn't happen to me today.  I had no sudden revelations, no enormous bends in my road.  But in the stillness of the not-so-early morning, I saw quite clearly, for a moment, that God blesses us not in giving us what we ask for, but in giving us what we truly want, even though we may not know it yet.

That is my dream for the final days of this year, a year where, so many times, for so many people, the expected missed its cue, the anticipated neglected to appear, and yet the wondrous time and again reared its lovely head.  May God give each and every one of you a vision of what it means to embrace the turbulence of His majesty.  For there is Order amid the seeming chaos of the many turns in the road.  And that Order will never let us down.  May we rest in that.

God bless you all, and a very happy Christmas,
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