We like to celebrate.

Whether a birthday, a graduation, a marriage or a job promotion.

Life is a long game if you’re lucky, and small or large victories, while traveling a long and winding road, are important means of motivation.

So a curious question: Do we learn more from success or failure?

To celebrate or not to celebrate?

Harvard Business Review: “We argue that success can breed failure by hindering learning at both the individual and the organizational level. We all know that learning from failure is one of the most important capacities for people and companies to develop.” 

So take heart all our brave and loved ministries. I’ve long maintained that we learn from mistakes and move on; don’t let it paralyze you. But, do you learn and move on, or do you recoil in retreat, feeling “what’s the use?” willing to fail and leave it right there?

We plan for success but must also prepare to learn from setbacks, and that’s what I call the winner within. We know He wants you to get up and try harder, work smarter.  “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21).

Forbes Magazine: “Dealing with setbacks, obstacles, and failures is such a common human condition that we have courses on building resilience and on learning from our mistakes. There are many quotes from famous athletes, businesspeople, writers and other professionals about how they experienced numerous rejections yet learned from these disappointments, and eventually became successful. For example, Henry Ford said, “failure is simply the opportunity to begin again; this time more intelligently.”

One of the more quotable quotes is by the basketball legend, Michael Jordan who said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games, and 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again. That is why I succeed.”

Hill Street Blues, the wildly successful TV Show broadcast in the 1980’s, Actor Sergeant Phil Esterhaus’s (Michael Conrad) peered into the camera lenses after giving out daily assignments and ended each morning’s roll call with the catchphrase, “Let’s be careful out there.”

“Let’s be careful out there” is to be alert, be curious, always.

The Good News likes to celebrate Him, The Good News also likes to celebrate you.

We do life together; therefore, we celebrate together: milestones and anniversaries, realizing many challenges and disappointments take place, and it was loyalty and perseverance that kept things moving forward for His Glory. That’s important to remember: For His Glory.

We generally use our pages, our covers, to celebrate, and this month we are thrilled to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, and particularly the 10th Anniversary of Senior Pastor Doug Sauder. I encourage everyone to read this month’s cover feature by GN Editor Shelly Pond beginning on pages 18 – 21.

The back story? This has been a Good News work in progress for many years, waiting for a milestone anniversary to bring it to our readers. Seemingly a cast of thousands span those forty years and has most likely touched the lives, either directly or indirectly, of most everyone in Southern Florida with outreaches around the globe. We hope you enjoy what God is doing through the glorious efforts in our churches and ministries, and I’ve said many times: we are honored to be part of the cheerleading squad to bring our partners and readers extraordinary efforts, well and faithfully executed. 

-Les