When I was a senior in high school, my co-captain of our varsity basketball team won Mr. Pittsburgh—an area-wide strong-man competition. It was a big deal, so I invited him out along with two of our girl friends to celebrate, on me. I thought first we’d go bowling, and then possibly go out to eat pizza.
Well, after the girls annihilated us in bowling, I decided we’d drop them off after bowling and go out to eat ourselves. After all, we hadn’t yet told them of our plans, and we were too embarrassed to face our failures the rest of the night!
I know now how immature that decision was, but don’t we all feel that way sometimes? We attempt to avoid every reminder of our failure, missing out on incredible blessings, opportunities, and friendships along the way.
Thank God, He didn’t choose us because we never fail. He chose us simply because He loves us. And He knows that when we learn to fail well, our lives can become the greatest testimony of His grace.
I call this journey of learning to fail well “the battle of becoming.” On it, there are two major adversaries we all face: shame and scarcity. Shame says, “I should do better, but I keep messing up.” And scarcity says, “I feel there’s nobody out there who can help me become who I’m meant to be.”
Both the shame and the scarcity mindsets are void of hope—something Jesus died to give. They threaten to overtake us when we focus too much on ourselves. See, becoming all God wants us to be doesn’t simply require us to increase our determination; it requires that we increase our consecration to Jesus.
One of the best examples of this is Peter. In his first encounter with Jesus in Matthew 4, we find three lessons he would soon learn on the battle of becoming.
Verses 18-20 tells us: “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, ‘Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!’ And they left their nets at once and followed him.”
Notice Jesus’ promise: “I will show you.” This proves that, first, we all have a significant design only Jesus can show us. Only He can bring out all He has put inside of us. To get there, we’ll need to embrace significant development. We’ll need to learn to fail well, pushing past mindsets void of hope. We’ll also need to embrace significant discipline that causes us to live as disciples—to leave our nets and follow Him.
Together, let’s agree that 2025 will be the year we allow God to nurture greatness on the inside of us. On our own, things may look impossible. But with God, we can become all we’re meant to be!
