What will you do with your Mistake?

 

In 1928 Alexander Fleming made a careless mistake, which wasn’t his custom. He had completed university and medical school with academic distinction and served with honor in the army medical corps in World War I. Then he returned to research and teaching at the Royal College of Surgeons, trying to find antibacterial substances that would be nontoxic to animal tissues. And he had achieved a measure of success.

While researching influenza, however, he somehow contaminated a staphylococcus culture dish with mold and ruined the culture.

That uncharacteristically careless act resulted in what has been termed a "triumph of accident and shrewd observation," for Fleming noticed the mold had produced a bacteria free spot in the previously thriving staphylococcus colony. Upon further investigation, he observed the mold produced a substance that prevented staphylococcus growth, even when diluted eight hundred times. He christened that substance penicillin, and medicine has not been the same since.

For his mistake, Fleming was knighted, and in 1945 shared the Nobel prize. Because of Sir Alexander Fleming’s mistake, hundreds of thousands of people have been healed and even saved from death. We could use more mistakes of that sort.

 

So to whoever is reading this blog, for whatever reason God allowed you to find this spot, I want you to know mistakes are only temporary detours not permanent dead end streets. Mistakes can become your teachers and not your undertaker, Your mistake can either become your masterpiece, your "triumph of accident" or it can become your mess from which you do not escape,

 

Mistakes can leave scars, broken marriages, wasted years, lowered horizons and expectations, injured relationships, snickering congregations and confused minds but they also can sharpen senses, temper the soul, become life's compass and cause you to run faster and stay longer in the presence of God.

 

Whether your mistake becomes a masterpiece or a mess remains in your hands,,,,,,what will you do with your mistake?

 

 

Wednesday in the Word--Doing What Pleases God

The story is told of a young concert pianist who was performing for the first time in public. The audience sat captivated as beautiful music flowed from his disciplined fingers. The people could hardly take their eyes off this young masterful pianist. As the final note faded, the audience burst into applause. Everyone was standing, except one old man up front. The pianist walked off the stage disappointed. The stage manager praised the performance, but the young man said, "I was no good, it was a failure." The manager replied, "Look out there, everyone is on his feet except one old man!" "Yes," said the youth sadly, "but that one old man is my teacher." I wonder if we as Christians have the same desire for God’s approval as that pianist had for his teacher’s praise? Our Lord’s approving smile is what really matters. When is the last time you concerned yourself with pleasing God instead of pleasing others or yourself? His approval is the only one that really matters