“And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice:….And the Lord spoke unto Moses…you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I give them.” – Numbers 20:11 & 12.
“And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God: But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, you have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars: you shall not build a house unto my name,……a son shall be born to you,…he shall build a house for my name.”- 1Chron.22:7-10.
Of late I’ve been reflecting and pondering on the grueling lessons life has taught me. The lessons I’ve learnt the hard way from the “School of hard knocks”; which caused me to muse on the life struggles, and the trials and triumphs of two exceptional biblical characters – Moses and King David! ; And in the process I arrived at some very substantive conclusions; revelations which I thought, I should share with those whom I love and care!
It is an immutable fact of life that indiscretions of the past,, however minor or trivial they may seem at the time, have the propensity to raise their ugly heads, and threaten a person’s present or even shatter the person’s dreams for the future! Actions of the past, whether good or bad, they all have an uncanny ability to reach into our present and also into our future!
Moses and David survived the consequences of their actions in the immediate aftermath of what they had done. David was crafty enough to weather the storms after his indiscretion with Uriah’s wife, but the follies of his past soon caught up with him, and he had to pay his dues. God HAS A FOOL-PROOF system of ‘checks and balances’, and it never fails! God had Nathan the prophet to keep David the king in check! In the churches of today, in addition to the prophets, God has also put in place the nit-picking, fault-finding, ‘chosen-frozen’ to keep both the errant laity and clergy in check! Like it or not, these folk render yeoman’s service to the body of Christ!
Moses dreamt all his life about delivering his people from the scourge of slavery, and one day, to lead them into the Promised Land. David’s life-long dream was to build a House, a Temple for the God whom he loved so passionately. Both Moses and David dreamt, and they lived for their dreams! The driving force in their lives was the dreams they carried in their hearts! But, alas, neither of them achieved the “the dream of his life”. They had the valour and the vigour; the courage and the fortitude to be chosen to pursue their dreams; but sadly they lacked the character to make their dreams a reality!!! True they achieved the goal. They ran the race. They even won the race! But, they didn’t get to carry the trophy home!
Moses, in a fit of anger, smote the rock, instead of speaking to it; And David – a man of war, sent his armies to the battlefront, but he himself stayed behind, and fell victim to the wiles of a temptress! The man who commanded armies, had no command over the passions of his flesh, and he paid the price! You see, a man’s character is not what he does in the extra-ordinary moments of his life, but the real test of character is, what he does when he is not under the glare of the flood lights!
But that is not the end of the story! The greatness about these two men of God was that they did not let their past control their future. They refused to let the indiscretions of their past rob them of the plans God had for them for their future. Instead of throwing the towel in, and calling it quits, they pressed on! Instead of venting their frustrations on those around them, and wallowing in self-pity, they pulled themselves together, and forged ahead towards the goal; the mark that God had set for them!!
You see, sometimes, failure is only a detour, not a dead-end! There are many great men who have failed many times in their attempts at achieving their dreams, yet they never gave up! Sometimes failures are the stepping stones that lay on our path to success!!! If we have learnt from our failures, we have not failed at all!!
I would like to tell you the true stories of two people, who tried and failed, but kept on trying till they succeeded. I’ll start with my name’s sake Colonel Sanders!
Colonel Harland Sanders, a committed Christian, had tried a number of unsuccessful business ventures. At the age of 65, he decided his fried chicken with its secret blend of 11 herbs and spices was the right idea. He refused to give up in spite of 1008 sales calls to restaurant owners that ended in rejection. Prospect number 1009 was the first to say “yes.” Colonel Sanders said that his faith took him from living off his $105 monthly pension check to running a $285 billion company.
Christian author Madeleine L’Engle sold three books before she was 30. During the next decade, however, she only sold two books, neither of which was a great success. On her 40th birthday she received yet another rejection from a publisher. She covered up her typewriter and cried. Then she wrote in her journal, “I’m a writer. That’s who I am, even if I’m never published again.”
She did work on another book, “A Wrinkle in Time”, which was rejected nearly 30 times before it sold. It won the American Library Association’s Newberry Medal for Children’s Literature and has been read by millions of people. Norman Lear made it into a movie. Published in 1962, she sold nearly a book a year for the next two decades.
You see, the indiscretions of our past may continue to haunt us as long as we live, and our failures may continue to cast a shadow over us for the rest of our lives! But God is a God of new chances; of new opportunities; and of new beginnings!!
Our reaction to past failures, unrealized dreams, regrets, mistakes, and our fear of future failures can keep us from becoming the people God created us to be, and doing the things he created us to do.
Let us take a leaf from the book of these two great men of God – Moses and David, and keep pressing on! As long as we keep trying, we just cannot fail!! Let your present and your future, re-write your past!! HARVEST SUCCESS FROM YOUR WASTELANDS OF FAILURE, AND TURN YOUR DEFEATS INTO TRIUMPHS, AND YOUR SORROWS INTO JOY!
God loves you, and we love you too!
God bless you.
Pastor Dayalan sanders.
