On Wednesday, November 3, I was making my way to work on a cold and rainy day. Just about to arrive, I began thinking about the 6:00AM ZOOM call I was about to join. I happened to be the host of this meeting, so that meant that my being on time would allow others to join and participate. As it turns out, that didn’t happen the way I thought.
In fact, as I was about to finish the last leg of the drive I remembered that my briefcase was in my wife’s car. You see, the night before I moved it over there as we were heading to an awards banquet for one of my daughters. Thinking I would remember to shift it back in the morning from one vehicle to the other I went to sleep that night.
Not so. I forgot. Thus, I showed up late to the office, and I made my ZOOM participants wait about 20 minutes for me as well.
Needless to say, there was some minor frustration experienced by me that morning. But, there were a lot of lessons learned as well.
- Don’t procrastinate…accept responsibility.
- This is a struggle for every human. Some more than others. I’m usually pretty good about not doing this, but it does sneak up on me sometimes. This time…it bit me.
- Don’t over-estimate…rely on the process.
- I think I can do more than I can. In this case, I relied on my memory instead of my process of remembering. I needed to trust my process.
- Don’t under-estimate…embrace forgiveness.
- I beat myself up, but my ZOOM participants didn’t. They forgave me, and they probably haven’t thought anymore about it. I need to remember friendships are not based on making a call 20 minutes late.
Perhaps you can relate to this experience? The reality is…life is full of forgotten briefcases, and the question is, “Will I embrace my weakness, and accept another’s forgiveness?”
“And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
— November 4, 2021