Altar Call – Opelika-Auburn News
Walter Albritton
September 8, 2019
Get Over It!
Sooner
or later everyone tastes the bitter pill of failure.
No one gets through life without suffering defeat. Some learn to get over it
and move on. Others never learn.
The best way to handle
failure can be summed up in three words: Get over it! Have a pity party if you
must, but decide quickly to move on. The longer you whine about your failure,
the longer it will take you to recover. So limit your whining to no more than a
day.
Worry will not help.
Bitterness makes things worse and it sours your spirit. Regret is useful only
if it shows you ways you need to change. Retrieve some lesson from your failure
and resolve not to make that mistake again.
Life is a mix of pain and
pleasure. There are difficult days and there are days of joy. In the dark days you
must learn to look for light wherever you can find it. The words of Thomas
Carlyle are helpful: “The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark
enough.” If you gaze up into the dark sky long enough, eventually you can see
the stars shining.
Embrace the reality that life is not all sunshine and sweetness.
There will be sad and lonely days, but you can choose to overcome your misery.
Longfellow understood this reality:
Be
still, sad heart, and cease repining,
Behind
the clouds the sun is shining;
Thy
fate is the common fate of all;
Into
each life some rain must fall, --
Some
days must be dark and dreary.
Adversity is a great
teacher. We learn more from failure than success. Success often leads to pride,
and pride causes us to stumble. “Pride and weakness,” Robert Lowell said, “are Siamese twins.”
When you fall, ask what
caused you to fall, and resolve not to repeat any blunder you realize you made.
Only a fool continues to make the same mistake repeatedly. You can learn not to
do certain things again. Until you do, you will never be able to “get over it”
and move on.
People may hurt you. They
may step on you to get ahead. Someone else may get the promotion you thought
you deserved. When that happens, you have a choice. You can stew over it and
complain bitterly. You can scream and cry that you were wronged. None of that
will help you. It only makes you miserable. Anger robs you of peace of mind. So
what can you do? Move out of town? No, just get over it. And quietly resolve to
do what Jesus recommended: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
That is the best plan – and a healthy plan.
To get over a disappointment you must
usually rise above it. Washington Irving said it well: “Little minds are tamed
and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.” He was right. You
can refuse to be subdued by your defeats and become a better person because of
them.
Anger is seldom wise. Problems are not
solved by tearing your hair out. Baldness will not soothe your sorrows. While
it is normal to become angry with someone who hurts you, a wiser response would
be to calm down, get the anger out of your system, and get over the hurt.
But you can never get over it until you are
willing to forgive the person who wronged you. Resentment hurts you, not the
person you resent. Hatred chains you to the person you hate. The only
way ever to be free is to forgive. Forgiveness breaks the chain and sets you
free. I like what Joan Lunden said: “Holding on to
anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore
jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the
lightness in your life.”
If you are nursing a hurt,
disappointment or failure, admit that you need to get over it. Forgive yourself
and forgive anyone who has wronged you. Get over it and you can move on with
your life. Life will not be perfect, but it will be sweeter, and you will be
able to share with your friends: “Thank God! I’m over it!”
The
next time life falls apart, say to yourself, “Get over it!” Take a deep breath,
two aspirin, and get over it! Then you can move on with your life. This plan
will work. I know it will because it has worked for me several times. Oh, one
other thing. You don’t have to struggle alone to make this plan work. The
Living Christ will help you the minute you call on Him for help. He loves to
give you and me the strength to get over our failures! + + +