Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
One of my favorite Disney animated movies has flown pretty low under the radar for most people. It's called Meet The Robinsons and I had the pleasure of introducing it to my bonus sons over the weekend. The story is about an orphan boy who travels forward in time and meets his future family. The cool thing about this family is they are a group of creatives and inventors who teach him that there is value in failing. With the rest of the world shouting that if you fail at something you are doomed to failure in everything. The Robinsons see the value in a lesson learned from failure they celebrate it and encourage each other to "keep moving forward".
In today's gospel Jesus shares the famous Beatitudes. Jesus runs down a laundry list of people the "world" considers failures. The people who are poor. The people who are seeking justice. The people who are meek. He is letting us know that God's idea of failure is not the same as the worlds. When the world sees failure God sees a chance for redemption. So the next time you feel like a failure remember two things. 1. Failure is an opportunity to learn from your mistake and "keep moving forward". 2. God's idea of a failure is far different from that of the worlds.
