From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
“Mistakes are the portals of discovery” said James Joyce, and we would be wise to embrace this observation.
Personally, I get very frustrated with myself when I make mistakes.
Last spring our family went on a vacation to Washington, DC with stops along the way.
While travelling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I allowed my oldest daughter to drive while I took a nap in the back seat of the van.
I told her to turn off the GPS as we had a long way to go and I would be back behind the wheel by then.
However, when I came to, we had driven way past our turnoff.
I was fit to be tied until I saw a road sign saying that we were only a few miles from Gettysburg, which was not on our itinerary originally.
We decided to go there and spend several hours taking in this historic city.
We went on an adventure that we would not have enjoyed if I had not made my mistake that day.
By golly, James Joyce was right!
Let’s face it, life is full of mistakes and we can’t avoid them all.
We can wring our hands in frustration and decide the day is ruined, or we can go with the flow and see what we can salvage from our unintended experience.
Sometimes life gives you lemons, and sometimes we do the lemon giving ourselves, but either way, we can still make lemonade out of it.
Oh, and there is one more thing to consider.
If you are the one on the receiving end of a mistake, James Joyce’s advice works for you, too.
See that mistake as an opportunity to forgive, to change direction, or to just simply try something different.
You might just find yourself on the cusp of a fresh discovery!
