If I’m being honest; I am a bit of a slow learner. I find myself making the same mistakes, and thinking "Haven't I already learned the moral of this story?" It can be frustrating. The Lord has been teaching me this past year the importance of taking time to unpack my mistakes, so that I can actually learn from them. The experience alone is worth a lot, but we gain so much more from our stumbling and our failures when we take time to sit down and say "alright, well that was terrible, what happened there? How can I make sure that doesn't happen again?
On some of my early woodworking youtube videos, the comment section would often express appreciation for including mistakes I made during the project in the video edit. It would be so easy to just cut out all the missteps, the disasters and the start-all-overs, cover up all the blemishes and present this seemingly perfect, finished project to the world. Social media offers us that ability; to present our work and ourselves as flawless. As a result we lose touch with reality and we begin to see the world through this distorted lens. Slowly we convince ourselves that all we are and all we do is not good enough, and not worth sharing.
That is not true.
My aim with the Burgblog is to shed a light on my own imperfect-ness, to achieve a deeper understanding of my own shortcomings and how they manifest themselves in not just the furniture I build, but in my daily life. I figure the best way to do that, perhaps against my better judgement, is to share with you all the embarrassing, hilarious, and unexpected ways that I ruin things. It might be a bad idea, it might hurt my bottom dollar when you hear about my bone-headedneses, but at least it’s real.
As I share these stories, my prayer is not that you will read them and then simply be able to avoid my mistakes. There is value there, sure, but more-so that these stories would be an encouragement, a reminder to embrace the struggle of moving forward in spite of your own imperfections. Whether you realize it yet or not, you have something to share, experiences that have shaped you through all of your missteps, your disasters, and your start-all-overs. It is unique to you, and yet will speak into the lives of others, and help them realize that they are not alone. Don't let the fear keep you from moving forward, if not for your own sake, for the sake of the lives you will touch. It sure doesn't feel like it, but failure is a good thing, It means you're trying. I hope you enjoy the posts and I hope to hear from you as well about all the ways that you are falling on your faces in all of your imperfect glory.
You, in all of your imperfect-ness, were created in God's image, All of your struggles are not in vain, nothing is wasted, He will use all of it to refine us and make us a clearer reflection of our Creator.
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:9-11
Happy New Year
Chuck
Love this!! I’m here for the Burgblog journey! Especially loved the part you mentioned about being “refined into a clearer reflection of our Creator”… Das deep! Looking forward to more posts!