Head first

"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 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 and comes up short again, because there is no effort with out error and shortcomings, but who knows the greatest enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory or defeat."

-President Theodore Roosevelt

Which is better: to try and fail or to have not tried at all?

We can't look back at situations we felt called to jump into, but that ended in complete failure and say, "I must have been wrong." "I heard wrong." It was a miss-step." Although, maybe it was, the Lord works during those times of confusion to draw us even closer to Him, to bring wisdom and recognition to areas in need of refining in our lives. He grabs hold of us in the darkness, firmly locks our groping hands with His, leads our hearts back into His all-knowing light and brings us back to a place of total rest and reliance on Him as He makes clear what it is He wants us to learn from moments such as those. Maybe it didn't go as you expected, but rather how God predestined!

If you sense a calling, a feeling, an inclination to start on a mighty trek of conquering achievement for His name sake, sometimes fear tries to delay us, physical roadblocks get in our way, the enemy strives to bring us to a mind staggering halt, but if we never step out in faith, we will never be met with the blessed awe of our great God meeting us there in the midst of the unknown at just the right moment, drawing our gaze up to be met with the beautiful light of His glory and grace; taking our eyes off of what we can see and back onto His wonderful face. How beautiful our unity with Him to do great things... and how sweet the everlasting reminder of God's sovereignty in every area of our lives as we look back at those traveled roads of our lives and with amazement remember how He was there every step of the way as we dared to step out in total trust in Him. He was there, refining. Holding up. Leading. Protecting. Loving us.

If we never make mistakes, stumble or question our placement, we must not be doing anything, so jump I say! Head first and heart right. With everything that is in you. Your God is right there, holding your hand, jumping right along side you, in fact doing the jumping for you. And in the end, you can hold your head high, praising the Lord, whether in gloriously failing or amazingly accomplishing, because you put your complete trust in Him and though you may or may not have triumphed in yours or others' opinion, you certainly obeyed, your heart was in the right place, you grew in your relationship with Him, and gave it everything that was in you... and that counts for something, right!?

I believe it does.

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,"This is the way, walk in it." Isaiah 30:21