Between the Mistakes

I write a podcast with a client and sometimes we write together on one laptop keyboard.  

I tend to spew words on the page, going back to correct once my thoughts are down. She tends to edit as she goes.

I recently asked, “Why correct as we go…we can see past our mistakes.” She quipped back, “Now, that would make for a better world—seeing past the mistakes!”

Seeing past our mistakes… is extending grace to our emerging story. It invites freedom to imagine possibilities. To risk. To step forward into life and engage all that is set before us.

Seeing past others mistakes… is extending grace to their emerging story, and affording them the same possibilities.

We all handle our mistakes differently. Some regularly edit. Some push on, waiting for a natural or inflicted pause for reflection—like New Year’s resolutions.  

Mistakes hone our choices.

How we respond to our mistakes shapes who we are and who we become. We are made up of a lifetime of choices, big and small, that all come together in the person we are today.

What impedes grace for our mistakes are the lies of perfectionism—that somehow doing life correctly gives us a gold star on the chart of controlled outcomes.

I heard a lovely prayer recently:

“May the events of our lives draw us closer to you.”

Here is grace redeeming our mistakes, drawing us away from the burden of expectations, and closer towards another—be it God, our loved ones or our neighbour.  

May the events of our lives, lived between the mistakes and perfections, draw us closer to all that is mystery, joy and grace.

The featured image is courtesy of Lancia E. Smith for The Cultivating Project. 

“Between the Mistakes” was first published on Roy’s marvelous blog – Between the Notes, and is generously shared with Cultivating. We highly recommend that you subscribe to his blog to get his good words sent to you each week.

Roy Salmond

Roy Salmond is a record producer, working out of his studio Whitewater Productions in Vancouver Canada. He’s also an itinerant worship leader, speaker and writer, penning the weekly arts and faith blog: Between The Notes.

www.roysalmond.com