“The business of making a difference is not exclusive to the perfect – in fact, if you were to look closely at the people who have made some of the biggest contributions to humanity, you’d almost think it’s exclusive to the imperfect and to seriously flawed people – and you’d be right. Because these are the ones who took chances, made mistakes, suffered consequences, learned, made more mistakes, more consequences, learned more, and ended up with…
… discovery. I love that word. Partly because it starts with the letter “D” (which is absolutely my favorite letter), but because it means something was unveiled. That in the process of stepping out, falling, hurting, learning, rising, and on, something was revealed, a truth that gives you another chance, another better chance. And when that truth is spread it shares that better chance with others.”
- Housekeeping
I’m very excited to share with you. This is one topic I can confidently say I have much experience with: mistakes. When we talk about mistakes, we’re not just talking about Decisions and their subsequent Actions, but we’re looking at a more specific classification, which is “Wrong Decisions and Wrong Actions”.
Mistakes are about wrong decisions and wrong actions – and I make a lot of wrong decisions, and because of this, do a lot of wrong actions. So this makes me quite fit to be your tour guide through this gallery of mistaken individuals.
Sometimes I find myself caught between who I want to become, who others want me to become, and the limitations and flaws of who I really am. And sometimes I see the giants of an industry, or a sector, or a really successful, or behaved person, or just someone who appears to have it all together, and I think to myself, “How am I ever going to be like that? Will I even ever be like that? I can’t even pay my bills!”
Many of you probably can relate.
But take a closer look at these “giants” in their respective vocations, and as we peel off the perceptions, we’ll find people, like you and I, and as is the case whenever there are people, we’ll find mistakes.
But more than the mistakes, and errors, and boo boos, and trips, and sins, and consequences, and hurt, and pain, and regrets, and “never agains”, what I would really like to focus on are two words:
Discovery, no wait, something better – Revelation, that God is revealing things to us through our mistakes. He’s teaching us lessons, strengthening us, and making us realize what’s really important, but most of all, even in the midst of our mistakes, and the consequences, if we look to Him we find He’s revealing Himself to us. This gives me hope, hope I hold on to, that even if I fail to meet the expectations of my family, my employees, my church, my non-profit family, and all the other people who look to me, those who look up to me and down, that I just need to go back to His light and get a fresh revelation of His love.
Which brings us to our next word:
Redemption. Redemption is a beautiful word. It’s a heroic word. It’s a word that reminds me, “David Bonifacio, broke and bankrupt by his mistakes, (his many many mistakes known and in secret) but redeemed by His love.” When we talk about redemption, there is an aspect of value, that when something is re-deemed, it is re-judged and re-evaluated. Maybe some of us have been deemed, judged, and evaluated as failures, or losers, or bankrupt, or indebted, or poor, or greedy, or a cheater, or lazy, or stupid, or corrupt, or unscrupulous, or whatever, but there is hope as we shall see, and we can be re-deemed, re-judged, and re-evaluated as forgiven, accepted, and valuable.
More than mistakes, we can have stories of Revelation and Redemption, and sometimes a series of revelations and redemptions, and forgetting, and another round of revelations and redemptions. And you can call that a roller coaster if you’d like, I prefer to call it life.
