Messing Up

On his podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, Mike Cosper interviewed Joshua Harris about Harris’s path from evangelical golden boy to leaving the faith. Harris expresses how his failings as a teacher and Christian leader were one of the reasons he stepped away from the faith. Mike gently challenges him to see how his failings did not have to lead to abandoning faith, but could lead him to embrace God’s pathway to forgiveness, healing, and hope. He says, “The exposure of failure is the invitation to go, ‘Yeah, repentance is the way of life here’” (Mike Cosper, episode 8, “I Kissed Christianity Goodbye,” August 19, 2021, in The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, podcast, 37:00, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/joshua-harris-mars-hill-podcast-kissed-christianity-goodbye.html) Messing up is not unique to our individual experiences. We all fail—some more spectacularly than others, but our sins are never outside the realm of God’s grace. Prayer is the first thing we should do when we need help. The question we should ask ourselves when we mess up isn’t “Should I talk to God?” but “How fast can I run to God? Because I need him!”