Category: Failure

7/22/2026 1 Comment

Senselessness

Have you ever been paired with a partner in sports who refuses to correct mistakes that cause the team to lose or to lose points? Take pickleball, for example. When corrected or coached to not stand on the service line when serving, to move forward to the kitchen whenever possible, or not to hit balls that are clearly going out of bounds, this player just continues to repeat the same errors. There is zero effort to make any game adjustments.

I’m reminded of two Army officers I served with who would berate others and repeatedly cause problems with their acid tongue despite numerous counseling sessions and a verbal and written order to stop. Neither of these men was interested in compliance and stubbornly persisted in mistreating others. One I had to fire, the other I had to place under the careful supervision of a strong leader.

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6/9/2026 3 Comments

Faith in the Dust: A Devotional for Those who Feel Forgotten

I asked Pastor Daniel Mugeni, one of our First Cause international leaders, to share with you what it is like to minister in a poor rural community in Uganda. Daniel pastors Grace Harvest House of Worship in Iganga, Uganda, a town 33km from the source of the Nile in Jinja. This is critical because it is so easy to be complacent and selfish in a prosperous nation and forget what it means to suffer and struggle not just in faith but in surviving.

Meditation
2 Corinthians 1:6,7--If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort.

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2/10/2026 1 Comment

When Experience Doesn't Matter

In Dad’s journal entry for August 6, 2000, I read, “A schoolteacher claimed to have 25 years of experience, but her head teacher said of her, ‘She has just one year of experience 25 times.’” Ouch.

Meditation
Lamentations 3:47-48--We have experienced panic and pitfall, devastation and destruction. My eyes flow with streams of tears because of the destruction of my dear people.

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1/22/2026 0 Comments

I Have Observed

I remember, as an eighteen-year-old, living with my aunt and uncle in Coeur ‘d Alene, Idaho, who graciously took me into their home while I awaited my move to New York to attend West Point. Norm let me drive his Ford Ranchero and paid me to move pipes and water his crops. Whenever I got in a bind, he would flash his trademark Norwegian grin, which could be translated as “You are such an idiot.” I felt like a little kid in his presence. Given my mechanical stupidity, I’m sure he wondered how I would ever make it in an engineering school. Had it not been for God’s help and classmates like Kevin Stewart, who spent hours tutoring me, I would never have survived the Academy, and I wonder what would have become of my life. Wondering can be a healthy exercise in appreciating God’s sovereignty. This surely must have been the case for one of the world’s greatest leaders.

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11/9/2025 2 Comments

What Destroys Our Character?

Why is it so hard for Christians to finish well? Reading that question perhaps reminds you of someone who crashed and burned. It does not take much accounting to realize that many followers of Jesus who start well or accomplish great things somehow stumble at the finish line or simply quit running.

King Uzziah had it all. He had a brilliant military mind that conceptualized building devices that shot arrows and catapulted large stones from towers. These were crucial in defending Judah’s cities (26:15). God gave him success against his enemies, whom he defeated in battle, as long as he listened to the advice of Zechariah the priest.

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6/12/2025 0 Comments

He Couldn't Handle Success

Have you ever known someone who had the traits of likeability, kindness, and concern for others until they were promoted or achieved some recognized measure of success? The person you thought you knew is now impatient, less approachable, defensive, self-absorbed, and uninterested in your life and the lives of others. You try to imagine what happened to make this person so different.

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4/8/2025 0 Comments

Self-Righteous

Meditation
Deuteronomy 9:5,6--You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

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3/19/2025 2 Comments

Overflowing Hope

L-R: Bill Wadley, Dan York, Laura Wadley

He had a pretty rough upbringing with three different mothers and two different fathers.[1] His dad was an alcoholic and gambling addict. His 16-year-old birth mom was a drug and alcohol abuser. At the age of five, he had to take care of three half-siblings in the apartment, and if anything was broken or went wrong, he was beaten. He was seventeen before he found out his stepdad was not his real father.

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1/7/2025 0 Comments

Not to Do Dumb Stuff

Pastor Brian led the children in a short message at Agape Church. One of his questions for the kids was if they had any New Year’s Resolutions. Several girls and boys shared before one young boy raised his hand and said his New Year’s Resolution was “Not to do dumb stuff.” That elicited quite a chuckle amongst the adults.
Inspired by the young boy’s answer, I called and asked my West Point classmate, Randy, what the dumbest thing he could think of that he’d ever done. It did not take him long to answer. “I got a car, a California customized van, as a Cadet, before it was authorized. I kept it parked off campus but decided to drive it around school one day before graduation.” Unfortunately, someone reported him, and he became a Century Man. This meant that on top of the hours he had already walked for other infractions with his rifle across a cement apron, he would surpass 100 hours of marching.

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9/24/2024 0 Comments

On a Quest

Have you ever felt like you were on a journey to nowhere? Does life seem unfulfilling and taxed by unnecessary hardship? Do you find that what you thought would be meaningful is meaningless or empty? Imagine how the Israelites felt as they were exiled from their land by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Their lives revolved around loss, shame, and suffering. God told them, “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence. But you are not willing” (Isaiah 30:14). Like most people, the Israelites believed that they could solve problems and live however they wanted. God restored them to a worthwhile life only when they came to the end of themselves and recognized and renounced the evil of their rebellion.

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6/5/2024 1 Comment

Humiliated

Chester* and his team of five saw that their boss, Attila, was in trouble. Without consulting his managers, Attila hastily overcommitted his company to fill an order of 1000 Demoplastique to a client with zero patience for lateness. Attila’s company experienced 600% growth since COVID and shipped to over 120 countries. Lately, however, they had more orders than they could fill in time, and a missed deadline with BroadStar could result in a slew of lawsuits because their CEO was a cutthroat, unforgiving leader.

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1/14/2023 8 Comments

Navigating the Christian Life

Author Geoff Davis

Over forty years ago, on April 1, 1982, I pinned on a US Army Ranger Tab. When I began that program on February 2, 1982, I started with some of the Army’s best soldiers. God used it as one of the most formative lessons in my walk with Him, so that I might know Him better.

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12/16/2022 0 Comments

Grief

Grief is a day shrouded in fog and icy rain fed by a howling wind. It is spoiled fruit no longer fit to be savored. Grief makes its exhausted bed in a hidden cave on a barren mountain ridge called Sorrow. It rests in rare moments of silence and grows weary amidst mindless laughter. Its tears leave furrows unfilled by platitudes. When its memories are roused, new rivers flow, and expectation is uprooted, torn, and damaged.

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12/6/2022 2 Comments

The Best Message Never Preached

Dan with Ralph Holland

Ralph was invited to preach by pastors who had seen his television program broadcast throughout Latin America. Two pastors met him at the airport and took him to the venue—an auditorium full of worshipers. As the service progressed, the host pastor asked Ralph to be finished preaching by 9:00 p.m. so people who required public transportation could make the last bus. Two groups provided music and even played some of the same songs. An offering was taken, and the person facilitating it decided to preach a short message and then had one of the bands come up and play yet another song. By the time Ralph was introduced to speak it was 8:55!

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5/31/2021 0 Comments

Wilderness Lessons

If one were to find a synonym for wilderness in the Bible it would be fairly safe to substitute hardship. The Holman Christian Standard Bible uses the term wilderness 150 times.[1] The majority of references applied to Israel wandering through deserts that resulted in all but two adults over 40 dying and a whole lot of complaining and suffering. The fascinating thing is that God has a penchant for leading His people through wildernesses, to include His own Son (Matthew 4:1). Why does He do this?

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2/26/2021 1 Comment

Read Only

Monday, I received a message from my antivirus program telling me that a Microsoft Word App was trying to access my protected files. I checked the block to prevent that access. The next day all my Word documents were Read Only which meant I could not edit them and anything I copied and pasted also reverted to a Read Only status. In essence I was shut down from working. Microsoft user support spent half the day trying to help me without success. The next day, the antivirus company sent me a fix and I was able to get my documents running again. Until the following day when suddenly everything was again Read Only! Talk about being frustrated—this was just not right! Once again, I contacted Microsoft and again a technician worked with me after I gave her permission to access my computer remotely. This time she was successful in solving the problem. What a relief to be able to type in new additions and to make needed changes.

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1/7/2021 1 Comment

1 & 2 Kings: Inauguration

It might seem strange to start the year with a devotional on 1 & 2 Kings but it actually is quite appropriate. In this new year a president-elect is soon to be inaugurated. Somewhere around 1010 B.C., David, arguably the nation of Israel’s greatest king, just before he died passed great wisdom to his son Solomon. His words if heeded by any newly elected leader or monarch in modern times would make a significant difference.

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7/31/2020 0 Comments

I & II Samuel

If you want to read great books on leadership, read 1st and 2nd Samuel. Early tradition suggests that 1 and 2 Samuel were originally one book in scripture so I will do my best to examine the combined 55 chapters and share key leadership lessons. No author is named for these books but scholars largely credit the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad. Based on 1 Sa. 27:6, the writing may not have been completed until about 930 B.C.[1]

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3/31/2020 0 Comments

Numbers

The fourth book of the Bible is Numbers which is a translation of Arithmoi, from the Septuagint. It is titled as such because the book contains two census counts, numerous statistics, tribal and priestly figures, and other numerical data. The Hebrew name is included in the first sentence of the book and means “in the desert of ”; an accurate description of the book’s content, which follows the Israelites through almost forty years of desert wandering.[1]
The story began in the second year of the Israelites escape from Egypt, as they camped in the Wilderness of Sinai around 1444 BC. It ends 38 years later “in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho” (36:13) in 1406 BC.[2]

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12/18/2019 0 Comments

Futile or Fulfilled?

Ecclesiastes is a wisdom book written almost certainly by King Solomon. The book title in Hebrew is Qōheleth and translates “Teacher.” A predominant theme of Ecclesiastes is that “under the sun, all is futile.” Futility comes from the Hebrew word hevel which stresses that which is empty and transitory. This key word occurs 38 times and is used to describe outward, physical things as well as inward thoughts. [1] It is often paired with the phrase “a pursuit of the wind.”

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