"Really Tall" Towers

Life can sometimes feel like a tower of blocks that have come crashing down around us. In life we tend to build towers "really tall" just so we can say or feel like we have accomplished something. Then all of a sudden our "really tall" tower come crashing down around us. All we see is brokenness and chaos. Sometimes we have no idea what made it fall. Was it circumstances? Did we knock it down ourselves? Did someone else knock it down? Whatever the reason there we stand frozen with shock for a while.

I don't know about you but when I'm standing in the middle of my pile of blocks looking at the brokenness and chaos that has ensued all I see is devastation and failure. I want to run away and stick my head in a whole and never show my face again. This is especially true when I feel that it is my fault that the tower has fallen. It can feel hopeless and overwhelming.

The "children will lead them"...this past weekend I spent many hours with my two year old niece. She loves to play and build with blocks.  She loves to build "really tall" towers and she built many of them. What I witnessed as I watch her build and rebuild her "really tall" towers was her reaction to the towers crashing down.  In the beginning, each time the tower would fall I would say "uh-oh!" yet her reaction was always the same, "that's okay!" and she would just build it again. Sometimes she would even knock it down herself only to move it in the truck to rebuild it in another place. By the end of my time with her I had all but stopped saying "uh-oh" and just let her response become the norm.

My nieces reaction to "failure" is one of learning and growing not one of devastation. She does not associate failure with a negative reaction or emotion. Now don't get me wrong-failure is hard and can feel devastating. It can make us feel worthless and throw us for a loop. However, I am beginning to really understand that failure is not a symptom of unworthiness but rather part of "showing up" in life. When we are vulnerable, courageous and authentic (authentic=being who God created you to be) we are bound to fail because that how we learn and "THAT'S OKAY!"