One morning while eating breakfast, our daughter Hattie was watching an old episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Some have said that part of the genius of the show was in its simplicity and relatively low production value compared to the shows of today. Even deeper than that, however, the true genius is probably in the ways it teaches some of the most profound truths to children.

As I was pulling Hattie’s things together to get ready to take her to preschool I stopped for a moment as Mr. Rogers and his neighbor, Bob, were putting a craft together that required Bob to use a hammer and nails on a couple of small pieces of wood. Bob missed the nail on more than one occasion. Instead of having it on a good solid surface, he was balancing the pieces on his knee, which seemed obviously ineffective. One of the nails bent sideways as he hit it, and he had to awkwardly stop and straighten it out and start over. As an adult that has been conditioned to expect perfection, it was painful to watch. Then it hit me that even this seemingly fumbled part of the show was a teachable moment. In messing up, adjusting, and even starting again Bob and Mr. Rogers were teaching an important lesson.

It is okay to make mistakes. That is one of the hardest lessons to learn. We can all recognize the frustration and embarrassment on someone’s face when they realize they have messed up. We have all been there. Learning to live with and move beyond our mistakes is a lesson that many of us at various advanced ages are still trying to learn.

Mistakes lead to failures, and failures are so often seen as simply unacceptable. The truth, however, is that each mistake and failure is an opportunity to learn and to improve. Making mistakes makes us better, because it means we are putting ourselves out there and trying at something. Each mistake is an opportunity to learn to succeed in the future, because failure is one of the greatest teachers of all.

Shouldn’t the church be the place where it is okay to own our imperfections, to recognize our worth in spite of them, to learn from them, and to try to do better tomorrow? We have a faith that is based primarily in the fact that when it comes to living in the ways of God we get it wrong more often than we get it right, but God loves us anyway. God offers us forgiveness in spite of the ways we mess up and sin. God gives us a chance to try again.

As a result of this love and forgiveness, we are called to follow Jesus, the only one who was perfect. But we are never called to be perfect ourselves. To strive for perfection is an impossible task. We are called to do the best we can with who we are and what we have to follow Jesus. The only way to truly fail is to not to try to follow Jesus at all.

During the fall we will move into the analysis phase of our vision process. We will look at the vision initiatives we affirmed earlier this year, and we will lay them over the picture of all that we
are as a church. We will ask what adjustments need to be made if we are going to be who God has called us to be. As we move toward implementation we will make mistakes. There will be experiments that will fail. With each mistake and each failure we will learn how to better be church for each other and the world. The only way we can fail is to not try. I look forward to trying, and learning, with you.

Peace,

Rev. W. Mattison King