Failure

In a 1/2010 Wired Magazine article entitled How to Fail, The Neuroscience of Screwing Up,  Jonah Lehrer explains that it has been proven that we really aren't objective, even in our scientific exploration. Every human has two parts of the brain that deter us from being completely objective, The anterior cingulate cortex, which he calls the "oh, sh*t." circuit leads us to set aside what we don't like or expect. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex deletes even the memory of what we don't like. In other words, we are prone not to accept and, therefore, learn from failures (failures being what we did not expect.) Yet many "failures," if pursued, lead us to new and unknown "successes."

 

I wish I could delete some of the things of which I am not proud. They were failures of my moral life. We all have them. Some big. Some not so big. Some in our past. Some current.

 

Hard as it may be to believe, Jesus took up all our failures on the Cross and made them his. He can handle them. He wants them because he knows we cannot deal with them.  They crush us if we deal with them alone. While I still must deal with the external things that arise from my failures (trust, consequences, etc.,) I am not flawed as a person and neither are you. No matter where you have been or what you have done, you are not flawed. God has pushed the "delete" button. Big, little sins are covered once we turn our life over (again and again) to God.

 

As we enter a new year, celebrate the fresh start God gives you. Remember who loves you – completely and unconditionally.