I really enjoy watching Major League Baseball, especially the Astros. One of the greatest baseball players of all time was Reggie Jackson, nicknamed “Mr. October,” because of his great play late in the season. He played twenty-one seasons in the big leagues.
He still holds many records. I still remember him hitting three consecutive home runs for the Yankees in game six of the World Series in 1977.
One of the many great things about Reggie is that he was not afraid of failure. Here is an interesting fact: Reggie struck out 2,597 times in his major league career. That comes to one strikeout for every four times at bat. But he continued to step up to the plate game after game. Over the years, Reggie ended up breaking so many hitting records. He claims that he could not have done that without all the strikeouts.
Now here’s an important fact of life that we need to remember. It’s very simple. You have to swing the bat or you are never going to hit the ball. If you don’t swing with all you have, you will never hit the ball over the fence.
The great men and women of the Bible were not afraid of failure. Moses, Ruth, Abraham, Sarah, Deborah, David, Elijah, Elisha, Peter, Mary, Paul, Jesus. The list could go on for a while. They gave it their all, risking failure.
William Gladstone was a British statesman for over sixty years. He once said, “No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.”
Today, don’t be afraid to fail. Step up to the plate and swing the bat!