I love the movie Groundhog Day
The movie asks a haunting question: If we got unlimited “do overs” for one day in our life, what would we do?
It takes Phil Connors several do overs before he even begins to get things right: discover who he is, what he is called to do, and how to love others. He begins as a self-centered, narcissistic shell of a human being. He ends up learning about loving and giving and serving.
So often we take a much more high-pressure approach to do overs: If I had just one more chance, I would… nail that project, compose that symphony, get it right. But then you don’t.
But what if we need something like 35 more chances to fail at the same thing before we even begin to see what “getting it right” looks like?
In other words: fail often.
I’m putting together a series of preaching workshops called “Preach Better. Fail Often.” The first part is easy: Who doesn’t want to improve their craft? But are we willing to risk that many abysmal failures on the way to improving our art? What if it takes 3 years (or more) of trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and failing before we begin to see what “better” looks like?
OK, campers, rise and shine…!