Greetings and peace friends and family in Christ Jesus. Today my mother went to the dentist to be fitted for new dentures. While there, we discovered my mother’s Doctor is the son of a high school classmate with whom I graduated in 1970. And this is not his first year in practice either. More and more frequently I am discovering just how old I am getting. After I shared a story about the hardheaded nature of men, he shared a story with us that perfectly illustrated a key point of leadership. When he shared it, I suggested to him I wanted to use his true experience in a leadership blog and he quickly granted his permission and said I could use his name as well.
Mother’s Dentist is Doctor Matthew Walker. He and his brother, Doctor John Walker who is my wife’s Dentist, own and operate Downtown Family Dentistry in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Their office is on a small bluff overlooking a spring fed clear water stream with bird feeders outside the windows creating a battle between the squirrels and the birds for the goodies they provide in the feeders. They have overhead TVs for their patients who desire them, particularly for the children. Their office is a relatively new structure across the street from Sequoyah City Park and affectionately known as the Castle for its picturesque architecture. They have built a reputation of being kind, caring, and exceptionally skilled in their field of medicine. Mother used to take her foster children to them, and she stopped being a foster parent in 2010. So, although they are young enough to be the ages of my children, they are not novices in medical practice.
As Doctor Matt Walker was making the imprint casting for Mother’s dentures he said, “We are halfway through. Now let’s do the easier one to do and the more difficult one to get the proper fit.” During the conversation he shared his story. “I know this is the most difficult one to get the best fit because I missed the question on an exam in my first course in preparation to become a Dentist. The question on my test was, ‘Which denture will usually provide the most stable fit?’” He said, “I believed I was a logical person and even though I was just starting dental school, I thought I could get that one right. It seemed logical to me that gravity and the simple weight of the appliance would make the lower plate rest more stable in the mouth. However, I was wrong. The lower plate is the one that is most often going to be difficult to get the proper fit.” Doctor Walker continued to share, “Not only was I wrong, I had the audacity to argue with the professor attempting to convince him my answer was correct. But I was wrong. Now I have had all these years of practice and hundreds of opportunities to learn just how wrong I was. Now, for every client I provide dentures, I am reminded of the need to work diligently on the lower plate to provide them the best fitting denture plate possible.”
What Doctor Matt Walker shared illustrated the principle of learning from our mistakes and gaining lifelong insight that benefits us and those we serve. Because of his simple mistake on an exam he now is perhaps the best Dentist in this region of the country in assuring the best fit possible for the lower denture. That is one high yield on a small failure. Not at all in the same league with Doctor Walker’s illustration, there is a word I have not misspelled since about the third grade and that word is “community”. I misspelled it in a county-wide spelling bee. Since that time back in the third grade, I have never had to look up the word community in a dictionary to see how it was spelled. Neither did I have to study for it on a spelling test later. It has been indelibly imprinted in my mind from a moment in time about 60 years ago.
It has been said, “The smart person learns from their mistakes. The wise learn from the mistakes of others. But the fool never learns.” There are several variations on that quote. The point is no one really wants to make mistakes. Mistakes are costly. Learning from the mistakes of others is the least costly way to learn from mistakes. However, when a mistake or failure produces such an impact in a person it changes them forever and causes them to not repeat the mistake or failure, that failure has turned into a high yield investment.
Most of you are either members of the Southwest District Ministry Partners Leadership Team as a District Board Member, District Ministry Director, Pastor, or Key Staff Member, or some may be members of other Leadership Teams. The purpose of this blog is to remind you even a failure need not end in a deficit in most cases. If something has been learned from the failure and applied to future experiences in such a way as to glorify God, edify the Church, expand the gospel, bless someone or prevent you from a repeat of the failure, it has become a high yield investment for you.
No one likes or intends to make mistakes. But those who are on the cutting edge of leadership will make mistakes. There will be failures. It is one of the things that keeps us tightly clinging to our Lord and Master, hand in hand.
I am reminded of King David who made a few mistakes in his life. After the prophet Nathan showed David his sin, King David prayed his prayer recorded in Psalms 51.
Psalms 51:1-4, CEV
- (For the music leader. A psalm by David when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had been with Bathsheba.) You are kind, God! Please have pity on me. You are always merciful! Please wipe away my sins.
- Wash me clean from all of my sin and guilt.
- I know about my sins, and I cannot forget my terrible guilt.
- You are really the one I have sinned against; I have disobeyed you and have done wrong. So it is right and fair for you to correct and punish me.
The stakes for David were extremely high. His failure was enormous. But in the end, he alone was declared to be a “man after God’s own heart.” That is indeed a high yield return on his investment.
Do not be dismayed when you discover your failure. Instead allow it to change you in a positive way that produces a high yield return on a costly investment.