how big is your delete button?

As my husband and I get our nursery ready for our baby girl, we decided it was time to move our home office downstairs. So right now I’m sitting in my new space working away on a couple things. I pulled out the keyboard and started typing something up. I went to delete a couple words in a document and realized something unsettling.

The backspace button is tiny. Minuscule. It’s too small.

After working for the past hour on this keyboard, I’m now aware how often I use the backspace button. I type a couple sentences, make a mistake and back up a couple words. I misspell words so I promptly hit backspace, make the correction and move on.

There’s something exciting happening in the local church regarding delete buttons. Before, when trying something new, I used to feel this pressure to get everything right the first time. It was a reflection on my leadership and ability. My default mode is perfectionism. I took mistakes personally. My work defined my worth.

But I feel God changing my perspective on failure. We’re in a new season of what the local church looks like. Some of the ways of “being church” that worked in the past, aren’t as effective anymore. We’re trying lots of new things to see what connects people to God and what isn’t helpful.

Are we willing to see failure as a sign of a step in the right direction? I would rather fail spectacularly at a new idea or ministry because at least we’re trying something. If we simply copy and paste every idea from the past, we don’t have to depend much on the Holy Spirit’s direction. That’s actually the number one lesson I’m learning from trying new things. I’m much more in tune with the Holy Spirit because I don’t have any other guide, curriculum or plan to follow.

I imagine God giving the church a pretty big backspace button right now. Be willing to fail. Then you might actually try the thing you’ve always wanted to try.