Dealing with mistakes

Tom Watts, 14th Jun 2018
Tags: Life Blog Challenges Redemption Sport Success

As a lifelong supporter of Liverpool FC, last weekends loss to Real Madrid in the champions league final hurt. It hurt a lot.

Our best player went off injured within the first half hour and all hope seemed lost. However, the game won’t be remembered for that incident. What followed in the second half was so astonishing that you simply have to laugh… (skip to 1:22 for *that* moment)

Up until the first mistake, Liverpool hadn’t been outplayed by the opposition and they certainly didn’t deserve to be losing, but in that moment when the goalkeeper rolled it out to the opposition, the entire game turned on its head. 

It was the cruellest way to concede the lead, but despite Liverpool scoring shortly after, it was a sign of things to come. All the advantage swung in Madrid’s favour and following an amazing goal to make it 2-1, the second, almost unforgivable mistake, came when the ball went straight through his hands, sealing victory for Los Blancos.

Have you ever made a mistake like that? Have you made two in the same game? 

I can still remember one fateful morning playing rugby a few years ago when our team were down by a couple of points with five minutes to go. We were on the edge of scoring a try against a local, rival school in the semi final of the cup. I was about to make the all important pass to put us into the lead...

The ball ended up going about 20 metres behind the player I meant to pass to (this is not even an exaggeration) and the rest is history. As you can guess, we narrowly lost that game and exited the cup at the final hurdle before the final.

How do you respond to mistakes like that?

I didn’t want to put myself through that humiliation or let the team down again. I kept playing for a couple of years after that, but it was never the same. My dad to this day still ribs me about it!

When we make mistakes in life, and let’s face it we all do, we can often feel at rock bottom. We feel we have let ourselves, friends and family down and it can be incredibly hard to recover.

For me the main person in life who helps me recover from my mistakes is God, and there is a great story in the Bible that shows why that is.

Jesus talked about a son who wanted to live life his own way. The son asked for his inheritance early and on receiving it, left the family home for a new country. Enjoying life to the full with parties and new found friends, it wasn’t long before the money ran out and the son was left without food, a roof over his head, or any friends.

Reaching rock bottom, the son knew he had made a mistake and was reminded that even the workers of his father’s house had food and a roof over their head. So, the next day he set off back home - hoping his dad would allow him to live and work as a worker on his farm.

On returning to the family home, the father saw from a distance his son and without hesitation ran to him, hugged him and celebrated his return!

The father in this story represents God. The good news is that God welcomes anyone who has made mistakes, messed up and feels like they have hit rock bottom. 

Whatever mistakes you may have made in life, God loves you, cares for you and wants to forgive you. He wants to celebrate your safe return.

How do you connect with God to receive that forgiveness? Simply talk to him and ask for forgiveness and all will be forgiven.