Costly Mistakes

Twenty year old Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis reached down and grabbed her snowboard to add a little hot dog move as she flew off the final jump on the way to the finish line and a gold medal. Add a little showmanship for the people who had been sitting there in the cold. As it turned out, although she was far ahead of everyone, her simple hot dog move was just enough to throw her off balance and she fell upon landing. Before she could get back on track she was passed by another racer and finished in second instead of first place. "I was really, really excited," Jacobellis would say later. "I had fought so hard. I was definitely caught up in the moment. I forgot to race. I was having fun, and that's what snowboarding is. I made a mistake," she said. "Everyone knows that's not normally me."

Not only did Lindsay lose the gold medal but the news reporters seemed fixated on the mistake like piranhas after bloody meat. They didn’t care about the brilliant race she had conducted, the silver medal she had won or the series of victories she’d had before the final race—only the mistake. It seems cruel that such a little mistake could cost so much. But Lindsay has lost that moment in time forever. There are no ‘do-overs’ in the Olympics.

The same goes for life, there are no do-overs. The Bible teaches, “Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” Ephesians 5:15-16. We all get to live this life once and three things are important to remember: 1. Life is very serious business, 2. Foolish mistakes can bring about terrible consequences, and 3. Big opportunities do not come along every day.

Lindsay will undoubtedly replay that moment a thousand times in her life and hopefully learn from it. In the Bible, Peter learned from his mistake of denying Jesus and became a great apostle. It is far worse, though, when we refuse the lessons to be learned through failures and mistakes and continue to repeat them over and over. This leads to bitterness and a defeated attitude. Judas made a terrible mistake and then regretted it, but it was too late, the mistake was done and he hated himself for it. Mistakes can really hurt.

The good news for us is that Jesus knows our hearts and desires us to repent and confess our sins when we fail. He is always willing to forgive and teach the one whose heart is correctable. God says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

But even better than learning from our mistakes is learning to obey God’s word so we do not have to make many really painful mistakes in the first place. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:22-25

Sometimes life is like a snowboard race. It comes at us so fast that we just react and do not think about what we are doing. It is in these moments when our inner discipline in and commitment to God’s word must be the strongest. Consider these words from Proverbs:

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.

18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

20 He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he.

21 The wise in heart will be called prudent, And sweetness of the lips increases learning.

22 Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly.

23 The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, And adds learning to his lips.

24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

25 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Proverbs 16:16-25 (NKJV)