If At First You Don't Succeed….

The "Him" being referred to here is Jesus.

Mark 8:22-26(NKJV)

22Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. 

23So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.

24And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”

25Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. 

26Then He sent him away to his house, saying, £“Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.”

One of the saddest things for me to witness is people who give up because they have failed. 

Success is 99% failure.  Soichiro Honda

Life is full of failure.  The key is to never give up.  Keep trying.  Not everything works out perfectly all the time.  Sometimes you have to try again.  And again. And again, if that is what it takes.  Isn't it nice to know that God understands this because it even happened to Jesus. 

Think of the scene above.  I can't think of a single other instance in the Bible where Jesus went to work a miracle and He had to do it twice.  That is what makes this exchange unique.  Can't you just imagine Jesus doing a bit of a double take when He realizes the guy can't see clearly? 

What happened?  Who knows?  Maybe Jesus was distracted.  Maybe his mind wandered and He was wondering what was for dinner.  Who knows.  But what is important is that He didn't give up.  When it didn't work the first time He didn't just automatically assume that He just wasn't meant to heal that guy.  Heck no.  Jesus gave it another try.  Why?  Because He expected to heal the guy completely.

So if Jesus doesn't give up after a setback, why should we?  After all, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!