You see, all successful people have two things in common. Number one, they're successful. And number two, they have all failed their way to success. So often, when we look at successful people, we think that they just make every right decision and they do nothing wrong. Yet all successful people have failed many, many times. Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame tried over a thousand times to get people to accept his secret recipe before he finally had someone buy it. Walt Disney went to over a hundred banks asking them to help him finance a theme park and each one of them rejected him. He was also fired from a newspaper because he wasn't creative enough! George Lucas spent over four years shopping his "Star Wars" script to numerous studios before he finally found someone willing to take a chance on him. Clarence Birdseye went bankrupt seven times before developing the flash freezing process, which revolutionized the entire frozen food industry. The Decca records company said to the Beatles that they really didn't like their sound and that guitar music was on its way out! I think we all have felt like Louise Fletcher Tarkington who, in her great prose, wrote, "I wish there were some wonderful place in the land of beginning again where all of our mistakes and all of our heartaches and all of our poor selfish grief, could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never be put on again." I know there's something that we all have in common today. We've all failed. May be I need to take a poll to make sure. I mean I shouldn't assume, should I? We all fail, and with that failure comes a desire, and that desire is to have another chance. All of us want what I call a do-over. We do something, we make a wrong decision, we think, "Oh, I would like to do that over again." In golf, it's called a "mulligan." It's a way to have another chance to redeem ourselves, and every one of us has what I call "second chance wishes." We think, "I wish that I could go back to that part of my life and do it over again. I wish that I would have made another decision at that point in my life." Every parent wishes he or she could have do-overs. Every person in every significant relationship wishes that he or she could have some do-overs. Among the many decisions that we make, there are some that, if we could, we would like to do over. God will give you a second chance. He'll give you an opportunity to look at what you have done, back up, reverse, make a u-turn, and head in a different direction." Speaking of those who wish they could do something over again and have a do-over, I love the story of the bricklayer. He tried to move 500 pounds of bricks from the top of a four-story building to the sidewalk below. The problem was, he tried to do it alone. These are his very words, taken from his insurance claim form: "It would have taken too long to carry the bricks down by hand, so I decided to put them in a barrel and lower them by a pulley, which I had fastened to the top of the building. So after tying the rope securely at ground level, I went up to the top of the building, I fastened the rope around the barrel, I loaded it with bricks, and I swung it out over the sidewalk for the descent. Then I went down to the sidewalk and untied the rope, holding it securely to guide the barrel down slowly. Since I only weigh 140 pounds, the 500-pound load jerked me from the ground so fast I didn't have time to think about letting go of the rope. As I passed between the second and third floors, I met the barrel coming down. This accounts for the bruises and the lacerations on my upper body. I held tightly to the rope, until I reached the top where my hand became jammed in the pulley. This accounts for my broken thumb. At the same time, however, the barrel hit the sidewalk with a bang and the bottom fell out. With the weight of the bricks gone, the barrel weighed only about 40 pounds, so my 140-pound body began a swift descent. Then I met the empty barrel coming up. This accounts for my broken ankle. Slowed only slightly, I continued the descent until I landed on the pile of bricks. This accounts for my sprained back and broken collarbone." I love this next line. I would like to disagree with it. The guy says at this point, "I lost my presence of mind completely." That's debatable. "I let go of the rope. And the empty barrel came crashing down on me. This accounts for my head injuries. As for the last question on your insurance claim form – "What would I do if the same situation arose again? - please be advised, I'm finished trying to do the job all by myself." The guy with the barrel and the bricks, you know what he wanted? He wanted a do-over! He wanted another opportunity to go back and say, "Let me see if I can get it right this time."

Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. Make your failures and mistakes learning experiences and God will give you a second chance.