Work Smart Rather Than Long.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12; 9

I know many great men and women who are extremely successful. One of these is one of the most successful homebuilders here in Charlotte. He also develops

subdivisions as well as building homes. He is well recognized as a premier business leader in the community. A mutual friend and I were talking one day and his name came up in our conversation. I mentioned how successful this person was to my friend and how everything he did seemed to lead to success. My friend, having lived in Charlotte longer than me, relayed how several years earlier this person had lost everything.  

Over the years I have come to know a lot of people who are successful today, but at one time in their life have failed. Their stories can be an inspiration to all of us. I have talked with a few and delved into the questions of what they thought caused them to fail and, more importantly, what brought them back on top. In many cases, the fear of failing never played a role in either situation. In every case, each person I talked to knew they could one day be successful again.

The fear of failure drives many people to business bondage. They work endless hours, compromise other ares of life for the business, and in many cases, surrender all in one area for fear of loosing it all in another area. The all can be the business, reputation, material things success provides, or their on self image. Fear of failure can be a dangerous thing. It can be the driving force that imprisons a person to hours upon hours of both physical and mental application to their task. 

I read a comment not to long ago. It stated, "we must fail before we can succeed."  I don't know if this is literally true, but I do believe that we have to live without the fear of failure. That does not take away the fact that we should strive to bring the maximum success in all we do, nor does it mean that we should look for failure or treat it casually. So, how should we look at failure? We tend to look at our weaknesses as failure. But our weaknesses can be an opportunity for God to display His power. At the end of the day, we can say it had to be of God for our weakness is made perfect in Him. God can overcome any of our weaknesses if we only look to Him for all we seek to accomplish. If we are dependent on Him, or, if we are undertaking something with the absolute assurance it is of God, then we can have peace with the results because we have done all we could do, and we have  let God do all He wants to do. 

Failure in the worlds eyes can be success in God's eyes. We may loose the things the world considers great, but use our circumstance to gain the things God considers great. Failure provides an opportunity to refocus our priorities and learn from our mistakes. Many live in a world of "what ifs"- what if this had not happened, or, what if I had done this instead of that. I learned a long time ago to move from the world of "what ifs" to the world of "next time." The next time I will do it differently. Learning from the mistakes of the past and moving forward to the success of the future.

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians, 3: 12-14