Success and Failure

Well last night’s modified softball game was a real test for me, actually the whole day stunk and the game was just the icing on the crap cake of a day. The game was a good game. We had been down like 9-1 at one point and should not have been. We had kicked the ball around making errors and hadn’t been hitting well either. We managed to claw our way back into the game and tie it at 11 in the last inning. So we went to extra innings and they scored 2. We came up and scored one, then had runners on second and third. Now guess who came up next? Yep, me. With a 3 ball-1 strike count I swung at a pitch that I should have let go by and I popped it up to the second baseman to end the game. Failure.
The whole day I had been dealing with the same type of issues: What do I do with the times that I fail, screw up or just don’t make the grade? These are intense feelings that can dominate my thinking. They can put my day, week and whole world into a tailspin that wreaks havoc on so much of life. Why do we believe in the lie of performance? Why do we measure our worth with things that, in the end, don’t matter all that much. Why is it so hard to trust the truth of who we are, to hear the soft voice of acceptance that whispers a love song in our ears?
My beautiful wife Connie sent me a precious email that really encouraged me. I think that God used it to hit me upside the head with the truth that I will never be more loved by Him because of what I do, or less loved because of my failures. Success!