Untitled Sermon (5)

Even the Stones will Cry Out

We all travel down different roads. At some point, the road will be tough. What lies ahead of this road? We will wonder if we took the wrong road? Should I turn back? Should I start over? Should I just give up and quit? We can’t see what lies ahead. If we could, we would probably quit. All we ever see is the failure. We never see the reward. The reward is there once you arrive, but all we see and focus on is the failure. What if I told you that failure is the key to success. What if I told you that the only way to truly be successful is to fail continuously.

Don’t believe me? How many of you walked the first time you stood up and tried? How many times as an infant did we fall. That fall was a failure. Oh, we don’t see it that way, that would be cruel. But, the fact is that nearly every child fails over and over and eventually they walk without falling, then they run. Life began with so many failures. But the world around us tells us that failure is for losers. We get judged on our failures and hardly ever praised on our successes. No one cares about your success, they just want to see you fail. People are watching and they want to see me fail ever day. Do you know what. I do not care about what the world thinks about me or my many failures. I keep on getting up and trying again and again because as Theodore Roosevelt said,

It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,

or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

who errs,

who comes short again and again;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best

knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,

and at the worst,

if he fails,

at least fails while daring greatly,

so that his place shall never be

with those cold timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Is the road I am on now, leading me to victory or failure, or both. Jesus was traveling down a road. He had quite the advantage on us. He could see around the bend. He could see every snare and trap that lied ahead. Yet, he moved forward.