Making The Most of Uncomfortable Moments

We’ve all been down the primrose path of perfection. Nothing is ever wrong. Everything is always right. Then, “Whammo!” you’re blindsided by a mistake you’ve made, a word misspoken, or an idea that did not work the way you planned.

How do you handle that incredibly sensitive and awkward moment?

Maybe this defines you and separates you from all others who fail and never get back up again. How do you confront the challenge, learn from it, and move on?

Several thoughts come to mind.

1. Accept that you’re not perfect! No one has a perfect record. Give yourself grace to learn from the moment, make the changes needed, and then move on
2. Recognize who and what is at fault and don’t dwell on it. If you are wrong, accept it. Move on. If someone else is wrong there may be nothing you can do except make the best of the moment.
3. Learn what to do better. The only time you don’t have a “next time” is when you fail to try again! Einstein says it like this: “You never fail until you stop trying.”
4. Tweak the process. From everything, we learn what was wrong and how we could do it better. When we do nothing different, you are doomed to repeat the issue.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. (Sure you understand this?)

What we’re focused on is growing. When you learn, you grow. From your growth, you become better. Keep doing life like this, over and over, and you’ll keep getting better.

Work is doing it.
Discipline is doing it every day.
Dilligence is doing it well every day.
~Dave Ramsey

Find a good formula and repeat as often as necessary. Tweak the process of becoming better as life changes. And it’s constantly changing! Regardless, keep on keeping on!

Experience

There was a time I took an advanced class on a programming language I was already familiar with. COBOL. (Common Business Oriented Language) I had learned the language in a Top-To-Bottom format and we were adapting to a structured style. Hence, the classroom experience.

The challenge was to craft a program that did not use the verb “Go To.” You would perform routines and fall through decision trees that were written in a style where you would not bounce to the appropriate routine by using “Go To.”

The instructor was adamant. “It’s poor programming to use Go-To!”

Then, to his dismay, displaying his skills, he could not structurally code a logic flow and needed to “Go To” the next step. With his back to the class for over an hour, he worked his magic and could never find the path. With choking voice and tears in his eyes he apologized to the chalkboard.

Me? I never went back to the class.

Have you ever faced an uncomfortable moment like this? How did you handle it?

Paul Lays Out His Version

Of course, of all those we study in scripture, Paul is my favorite. He shows us how he changed his world. Why? How? He wrote many letters and challenged the church to follow him as he followed Christ! In my favorite letter, he talked about his process. [Emphasis mine.]

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
Philippians 3:12-15 NKJV

After his conversion to be a Christ Follower, imagine Paul attending a synagogue where there were family and friends of someone he had voted on their death, after he chased them down and arrested them. What would you do?

“Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
Acts 26:9-11 NKJV

In other words, Paul was doing his calling as hard as he could, and even chased people when they left the country! He had the approval and authority of the chief priests to do exactly what he was doing.

But now? If he is the writer of Hebrews, he warns those who trampled the Son of God, and insulted the Spirit of Grace (Hebrews 10:29) that vengeance comes from the Lord. In fact, he gives them a deeper warning than they have probably heard in their own lifetime.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:31 NKJV

Bottom Line?

Paul reaches his ending, and of his last books we find his letters to Philippi, and his second letter to Timothy, his protoge. He encourages all to not think bad about the challenges he’s facing as he nears his ending. What he’s enduring actually furthers the Gospel! (Philippians 1:12-14.)

How do you make the most of those uncomfortable moments you have grown from? Prove yourself to be better than the moments you’ve created in the past of your yesterdays. In his latter years, Paul is doing exactly what the Lord told him his mission would be, but not before telling the first man to approach him when he was blinded:

But the Lord said to him [Ananias], “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Acts 9:15-16 NKJV

Paul picks up the harness of his mission, and does everything he can to undo those uncomfortable stories of his past. All the way to his ending, and now he’s ready to be offered up. He’s giving a good witness all the way to his ending. (2 Timothy 4:6-7)

What Paul shows me is how to keep moving forward even when we come out of our uncomfortable memories and persevere all the way to the end. There’s no time to backtrack, turn back, or give up. It’s time to handle my uncomfortable moments in a way that gives Glory to Christ.