I tried recording a podcast this morning for my day job. I moved our Mac Mini to an empty office, plugged in our shiny new Blue Snowball, and fired up Garage Band. My subject matter expert did great: very articulate. Good info. It looked like we were on our way to a respectable episode one.

Here’s where we were recording. Anyone who has any experience with recording audio could tell you how it sounded when I hit play.

[caption id=”attachment_756” align=”aligncenter” width=”224” caption=”Small room. Flat walls. No good.”]My first attempt at a recording setup in a spare office at my day job.[/caption]

The echo gave the recording a little bit more of an epic fantasy feel than we intended. I’m gonna have to re-record the whole thing in a better environment. Preferably somewhere without close, flat walls.

Say it with me: FAIL.

That particular four-letter F-word has crept into my vocabulary over the last few years, thanks to the Internet. It’s the verbal equivalent of the game show buzzer. We see it stamped unceremoniously on pictures that make us feel better about themselves. Hey, it’s good for a laugh. I don’t even know how many hours I’ve spend on FAIL Blog.

My problem with calling FAIL on someone is that it has an air of finality.

It reminds me of the time I opened a jug of milk and happened to see something on the underside of the cap. It said, “You are a non-winner.” Two things happened simultaneously in my brain. I realized that they were having a contest and I hadn’t noticed. At the same time, I thought, Oh, man! I’m a non-winner! It seemed so permanent.

Whether it comes from a friend or a judgmental dairy product, it’s easy to hear “you’re a failure” instead of “you failed.” As far as my squishy little heart is concerned, they’re the same thing.

That’s why I changed my desktop background to this.

Fail Better

The image comes from a great image blog called the Phraseology Project. Someone took Samuel Beckett’s famous quote and made it all pretty. As soon as I saw it, I knew I could use it.

The quote goes: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Failure isn’t a character quality. It’s a chance to learn, to grow. It’s a chance to do better next time. This is true even of some really, really bad choices.

God is all about second chances, and He loves when we learn from our bad choices. He loves when we turn away from evil and do the right thing. He’s ready to forgive. He’s ready to move forward from wherever you are.

I dunno about you, but I need that reminder a lot. Remember it.