Failure Is Nothing To Be Afraid Of

JMJ

This came to mind this morning.
I was thinking of my experiences with stage fright.
A priest, years ago, told me to proclaim the readings
at a daily Mass–& he said this right before Mass began,
so there was no time to look up pronunciations, etc.
(for the record, I defer to having men do the readings–
my mom observed that when women take over, men back off
& my observations were consistent with that).
At any rate, I was “on” & none too comfortable
with being in front of the congregation.
Then I realized that since this was an act of obedience
(not my idea!),
it wasn’t *about* me.
This is God’s business.
If He wants to use my failure, that’s his business.
If He wants me to get everything right, that’s His business too.
My job is to do my best & leave the rest to Him.
Knowing that God uses failure–
sometimes even better than success–
to accomplish His purposes
helped a lot 🙂.
I was able to focus on getting to the ambo
at the right time without tripping
& to proclaim the readings
without anxiety 🙂.
It’s a lesson I need to keep coming back to!