Mistake Proof

I sometimes tell folks that "people who think they are perfect are very annoying...to those of us who actually are perfect."  I, of course, do not believe that to be a true statement, but I do like to use a good pause and turn in jest.  The truth of the matter is that "there is no one righteous (perfect), not even one" (Rom 3:10).  We "all sin and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23).  There is no one who is mistake proof.

There are people who think they are mistake proof.  At least they refuse to admit their mistakes, choosing instead to cover them up or lay the blame on someone else.  Politicians are perhaps the worst of the lot when it comes to owning up to their mistakes.  I've noticed that President Obama's policy choices are never wrong - they don't often work, but they are never wrong.  He is quick to lay the blame for poor performance at the feet of President Bush, who, no doubt shares part of the blame for those problems, but is not responsible for President Obama's choices to deal with the problems.

All of us, from the President on down, would be better served if we admitted to ourselves and to others that we are not mistake proof, and that we owned up to our mistakes so that we could benefit from the mistake proof.  Wait a minute.  Did I just make a mistake?  No, not really.  I just made a little turn on words.  There is proof in a mistake of what does not work.  If we take that mistake proof and apply it to our future decisions in that area, we will be exercising the wisdom that came from seeing the proof our mistake pointed out.

In other words, wisdom comes when we refuse to hide our mistakes or pass the buck on to someone else.  Wisdom comes when we admit our poor choice and determine to avoid it going forward.  The reason young people, however intelligent, are not overly wise is that they haven't had the time to make enough mistakes to have learned much wisdom.  Wisdom comes from experience, mostly from the experience of making mistakes, and experience comes with age.

Ever wonder why God choose older, married men with children to be the leaders of the local churches (See 1 Tim 3:1-13)?  They have the proof of their mistakes having gone through years of marriage and parenting to share with others and to make better decisions than when they were younger, prior to marriage and family.  Do you remember all those "my kids will never..." and "my wife/husband will never..."?  Yeah, we know all about it and how to keep it all together right up to the point it is dropped in our laps.  And then, the lessons and hopefully the learning begins.

Don fall into the trap of believing you are or trying to appear mistake proof.  Nobody buys it anyway.  They know its just your arrogance and immaturity at work.  Instead don't let the proof of a mistake slip past you or get buried by your attempts to hide it or shift the blame to another.  Own your mistakes, admit them humbly and "the Lord will lift you up" (Jas 4:10), trading you wisdom for your mistakes.  For the Lord "gives [wisdom] generously to all without finding fault" (Jas 1:5).  Jus' Say'n.