Mistakes & Grace

If you were to ask someone how have they become so successful (because people totally do that) chances are they would say a lot of hard work.

I agree with that to an extent. Yes hard work is required to be successful at really anything, rarely do people have the job, family, talent, every single poster of One Direction without hard work. But one thing is missing from that....

MISTAKES!

No one gets anywhere in life without making some mistakes along the way, but that is good!

Allow me (like I need your permission) to share an example of my life:

The first position I held with my job at Olivet International was a part time Data Entry Associate in accounting. This is where I first learned of the magical application that you must know to do business. The all powerful Microsoft Excel. I made a nice chunk of mistakes but due to the kindness of my co workers I was able to learn from these mistakes.

I eventually transfered to the HR department as the woman that was preggers on maternity leave who's job I was filling returned. I was responsible for filing HR/Legal documents by certain categories that made no sense to me. Thanks to the understanding of my boss I was able to pick it up after some mistakes.

Eventually they had me do payroll (which meant I know how much people make and can be angry about it.... but shouldn't). This was a huge learning curve filled with...MISTAKES, but thanks again to the understanding of my boss we were able to work past it until I became more efficient at payroll than him.

This has now lead to me working for Synergy Group where I now add other companies to our payroll software and help them run payroll. I did not get this job because of my talent and knowledge, I got this job because of the mistakes I made and learned from. Mistakes that did not stop my learning or end my employment, mistakes that were not punished due to grace.

The two points I want to make with this story:

1. When you are teaching someone, even if it is a job you are paying them for, you have to allow for some mistakes. I am not saying let all of them slide without some conversation about it, but use them to help grow this person.
2. Realize how much of your own success has come form your mistakes and the grace that others showed to you to help you grow from them.

This now leads to my final point(SURPRISE! THIRD POINT!)

We fail every single day at this life that God has granted to us. 

It all started with Adam and Eve but we are the ones that continue to make bad decisions so we have no right to blame them as I am confident we would eventually have made the same mistake. 

We waste so much time in this life meant to bring glory to God and make His name known by making mistakes, and instead of letting us face our own fate that we have chosen  He sent His Son to die a real death on a real cross as the ultimate sacrifice, taking our punishment that we deserve. The ultimate form of grace for our mistakes.

Your whole life is built on mistakes and grace from others but how often do you realize that we are only here and able to live forever because of God's grace. We do not have anything today by our hard work, it is by grace.

What are you going to do with this gift of grace? I pray that it is something amazing for God's Kingdom.

My name is Matthew Worsham, and when I see people I also see God's grace. 

The (Americanized) American Dream...

What better way to break into this new(not really) and exciting(for all of you) world of blogging than with a rant...

I am not a fan of the American Dream.

I should clarify what it is I mean by the American Dream, or I should say, what it has become. Allow me to break it down for you in a non rapper way.

The (Americanized) American Dream:

• Be born (thank your parents)
• Go to school
• Go to more school
• Go into debt
• Find a job
• Find a spouse
• Buy a house
• Have kids
• Send the kids to school
• Retire to Florida
• Die

That is what the American Dream has become in this day and age. It is more of a list of to do's than a dream... dreams are to be something grand, something epic, something with a Velociraptor (just me?), but it has instead become a to do list.

Why has the American Dream become nothing but a to do list? My highly educated (heh) theory is that we are told this is what must be done. You are not a successful person unless the above criteria is checked off. It is what every modern family portrayed in the media is written to pursue, it is probably what your parents wanted to do, but the biggest reason is because we care too much about what people think about us. Sorry bros, that be dumb. 

My biggest problem with The (Americanized) American Dream, is that there is no room for purpose. This plan takes priority in every single facet of life, we get an education that bores us, we get a job that is bearable enough to keep on going to keep checking off that to do list, and we do not allow ourselves the chance to do something amazing. 

Sometimes we need to delay or even change our dreams to truly live.

One thing that I have been thinking about is how we were created in God's image... and the first thought we have on that is probably something like "oh, that means we look like Him or something right?" To me, I think it means we have UNLIMITED potential to do amazing thing's for God's Kingdom. We are made in His image... what an honor that is, what a gift that is... We all have gifts that have been given to us to do some amazing things... but then we don't do anything... and I feel one of the biggest reasons we are actually not pusuing God... is because we are too busy pursuing The (Americanized) American Dream.

So when I mentioned there is no room for purpose, I mean to say there is no room for God. We Americans need our safety bubble filled with money, the white picket fence, and having successful offspring. But the thing about bubbles, is they are going to pop. The thing about God, is that He will catch you, even if you die. No matter how awesome that new car is, it is going to hurt when you fall on it (unless it was made with nerf... get on that scientists).

Our dreams become useless wastes of time when it is not focused on God, and I do not mean focused twice a week when at Church, when we pray super quick to nom down (that means eat), I mean every day that ends with a Y (and Matt will never make that joke again). 

Without God guiding us to our dreams, we are just wandering around looking for justification to verify our wants and eventually that wandering is going to lead you off a cliff into oblivion. We are looking for our purpose.... when God already gave us one.

Now here is the part where Matt (psst... i'm Matt) makes you feel better for wanting those things I listed above... I do not think there is anything wrong with wanting those things. Most of you I feel will be called to follow that dream and be blessed with abundance, but that means you have to do something with that abundance. I actually do hope that everyone that reads this is blessed with wealth and comfort. But I pray that you do something with it other than fill your bubble with more fleeting things. If God has blessed you with something, it means you are to use it and this applies to talents as well as money.

The thing about this life that God gave to you is that you also have a purpose, His purpose for you. So this means you have to be willing to delay or even give up (GASP) on those things you want. I hope you all can achieve your dreams, but I pray that God is the at the front of your life guiding you there.

(end rant)