"Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD." Lamentations 3:40
After two failed attempts to win the Western States Endurance Run, the world's oldest 100-mile trail race that most runners consider the ultimate endurance test, Jim Walmsley won this weekend with a time of 14 hours, 30 minutes. His previous attempts included getting lost in the last few miles of the 2016 race, a competition where he had been in the lead until mile 93 and then placed 20th due to his mistake, and a DNF in 2017 because of extreme heat. Learning from his past errors is what, undoubtedly, helped him to not only win this year, but beat the course record by 16 minutes. Talk about learning from your mistakes!
And you know, as Walmley's victory shows, failure doesn't always mean that it's over. In fact, failure may be the very thing that gave him the wisdom to succeed. The same is true of our pursuit to follow Christ. You see, no matter how hard you and I try, we will all get tripped up by sin and fail from time to time, and it’s at those moments that you and I have a choice to make. Give up or learn from our mistakes and press on--which we do by thoroughly examining our ways, motives and actions to identify the cause of our downfall, repenting of the sin that caused it, and returning "to the Lord."
Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder that failure doesn't mean that it's over. Help us to remember that defeat can make a great stepping stone when we learn from it, turn back to You, and press on. Help us to do that Lord. It's in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen.
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