This picture is of a train bridge that is still in use, not far from where I live. Notice the wear and tear on it. It has some huge holes and some crumbling spots.
This bridge has been around a long time and it been supportive for many trains.
Makes me think of our lives…
If we sacrificed a lot in life, we will likely show some wear and tear too.
We have people that we’ve given up a lot for during our lives. They could be our parents, our children, people in ministries at our church, coworkers, customers, or any number of people.
It takes hard work to help others and, often there is incredible sacrifice involved. As we sacrifice, we show some wear - we get older faster - we show the signs of being a bridge.
Sometimes there will be scars from where we helped others and got hurt.
Once in awhile, we really give ourselves to someone else, when they need help. This is not the average church ministry, where we work with a group and try to shlep them. This is the time when you take a special interest in someone and take extra time out to try to impact them personally.
After you invested in this person, they turned away, didn’t take your advice, didn’t make the changes you saw started and it hurt. These relationships make your bridge wear quickly and make you rethink investments.
Don’t ever stop! These folks will remember your efforts and they may turn latter in life.
Could it be that we caused some of our own scars from failures along the way?
I think we do this often. We make choices, that we thought were good and right, and we fail miserably. We hate to admit this, but we make some choices in life that are utter failures and cause future hurt in our lives.
Those can cause some chipping away and sometimes, even some big divots that are painful for a long time.
Don’t look at these as bad. We ALL make mistakes and we ALL fail. The scars make us stronger in the end.
The best part of all of these is that, if we impacted other’s lives, then the scars, wearing and tearing is worth it, and the don’t even look like scars, they look like joy marks, smile lines, and reminders of lives that were touched.
Lessons Learned: Don’t stop being a bridge that sacrifices for others.
Thoughts: Do you have scars of sacrifice?
#failalot
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