I think many people have a false impression of failure. Often we look at failure as if it is the result of things that don’t go the way we want them to. Over the past couple years, I’ve seen a lot of things go in a different direction than I had originally planned but have also found those to some of the greatest lessons of my life.
So my thought of the night is this: Watching your dreams NOT come true does not qualify as a failure. Failure is never doing something about those dreams in the first place.
The same can be said of the flip side: Watching your dreams come true does not always qualify as a success. Success is the pursuit of those dreams and everything you get to learn along the way.
It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago about a man. One day he walked past a giant rock and God told him to push the rock. Every day he spent hours and hours pushing the rock, all the while growing more and more frustrated. The rock never budged. It remained in the very same spot where the man had found it but every day God told him the same thing. Finally after years of pushing the same rock and not seeing it move even an inch, he threw up his hands and said, “I can’t do this anymore! I keep trying and trying and nothing has ever happened! That’s it, God, no more!” He sat down and hung his head and the Lord whispered over him. “My son, you say nothing ever happened but lift up your head and look… look at your arms, your legs, and your back. Your muscles are stronger than ever they had been before. You are frustrated because you think that you have failed because you weren’t able to move the rock but, my precious son, I never told you to move it… I only told you to push.”
I love the new look! You’ll have to help me figure out how to update my old thing.
Oh! I like the thoughts as well;)