I woke up yesterday morning and seriously wished I could go back to sleep.  I had school to go to.

In business, I have done just about everything wrong that can be done, short of suicide.  So, I find myself, at the end of said decisions and practices, trying to do things differently.  Part of that process was getting out of bed.

I knew that I was going to make more mistakes.  I was going to fail more.  But I also knew, I couldn’t let it stop me.

So I got myself out of bed.

Alone, I walked out of the house and went to the job site.  I checked everything I could on my equipment and started up the first motor.  Then I filled up the water tank and started mixing ingredients.

Blah…  First problem.

Take equipment apart, clean everything, put it back together and start again.  Restart first motor and remix ingredients (to the tune of a couple hundred bucks down the drain).  Start second motor that ran for about five minutes and then died.

Fortunately, at this point, help had arrived.  We spent an hour or so diagnosing and then taking apart the carburetor and cleaning out bad fuel and gunk.  Restart motor.  Mix other ingredients and then we’re ready to go.

Ummm…

Why is everything going wrong?  The product looks wrong, the pumps keep shutting off.  We mixed things right but it ain’t right.

Shut down everything.  Check everything.  Start up again.  Lose more money.  Get more frustrated and discouraged.  Don’t quit.

Live with the thought that what I am fighting through now was caused by the poor decisions I made before.

But, don’t quit.

Product still doesn’t look right or feel right.  Just keep going.  Pumps shut off.  Reset and keep going.  When things look real bad throw it away and keep going.  Observe, criticize, listen to each other, help each other, ask questions, adapt, change, keep going.

Mistakes, yep.  Messy, yep.  Professional, no comment.

Job done, yep.  School.

I’m hoping someone needs to hear this today.  We think that God’s will is determined by how easy it is, how blessed, how “open the doors are.”  I don’t think so anymore.

It’s the downfall of scripture.  Abraham wasn’t even Abraham till he was like 90 years old.  Moses didn’t start his ministry till he was 80.  David didn’t become King till he was past 40.  Jesus, even Jesus, had to wait till he was 30.  That’s a lot of time to do things wrong before you do anything right.  And yes, I’m suggesting that maybe even Jesus made mistakes as he “increased in wisdom and in stature.”

Are you feeling broken by your past?  Does the weight of all you’ve done wrong, the mistakes that you’ve made, make you feel like it will never get any better?

Don’t quit.  That’s number one.  I’ll say it again, DON’T QUIT!

Let yourself be human, fail, get discouraged, ask questions, learn, keep going.

School never ends.