I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it… But the master replied, “You wicked and lazy servant.”
Matthew 25 v 25-26 (NLT)
Jesus taught that if you risk, you’ll be rewarded; but if you play it safe, you’ll lose. You’ll do things wrong many times before you learn to do them right. But if you let that stop you, you’ll never do anything significant. Walking by faith involves taking risks and making mistakes.
One day a ceramics teacher divided her class into two groups. The first group were told that they would be marked on the number of pieces they produced, the second group on the quality of the pieces. The first group could earn an ‘A’ for 50 pieces, ‘B’ for 40, a ‘C’ for 30 and so on. All the second group had to do was to produce one piece – but it had to be near perfect to get an ‘A’.
The results were amazing. While the first group kept churning out pieces, getting better as they went, the second group sat around waiting for inspiration, theorising about perfection but, in the end all they had to show for their efforts was a pile of dead clay.
Until you overcome your fear of making a mistake you’ll never make a difference in life. Faith means following God to the very edge, knowing that when you do, he’ll either put solid rock under your feet or he’ll teach you to fly!
This is an important lesson to remember. Our youth team at Anchor has 3 separate groups running, Sunday night Anchor Youth Bible study, Monday night outreach into Lostwithiel and Friday night Squire’s field youth night. Our Friday night group started well with high numbers but over the last 4 weeks has dwindled to 1s and 2s. It was decided by the community centre committee to suspend the youth night. It feels like failure. It might start up again in the Autumn term but right now I feel like we have failed.
At least we tried. And we will try again.
I don’t see a failure. A temporary lapse of numbers, let’s all enjoy a break this summer and regroup in the autumn . You’re a good leader, but people aren’t always respectful are they. You should have been consulted, so not your fault you weren’t. A chance to show Christian grace ? It’s not easy, but let’s try. I thought Proverbs 20 v 24 appropriate.