How many times have you ever heard a teacher or an administrator say any of the following:

“That’ll never work.”

“That’s impossible.”

“We tried something like that last year.”

“We’ve never done it that way before.”

“There’s no way that’ll work.”

Well here’s a dose of reality, as well as inspiration; no one has every tried EVERYTHING!  Many students and teachers have claimed they’ve tried, and they weren’t ashamed to tell you, “I’ve tried everything, and it just can’t be done.”  And to that defeatist comment I usually respond, “If you have indeed tried everything, then I want you to give me $5 for every ‘new way’ I can come up with in the next five minutes that you haven’t tried.”  In 15 years of teaching, I’ve still haven’t had any takers (students, parents, or teachers) on that bet.

The truth of the matter is, whether you believe you can or can’t do something, you’re absolutely right in either case.  And if you happen to fall on the side of believing it can’t be done, just step out of the way so you don’t impede the progress of those who believe it can be.

I think we’ve all heard the famous story about Thomas Edison’s pursuit in trying to harness electricity to create the light bulb. Having failed after more than 10,000 attempts, one of his assistants asked if he was ready to give up.  Edison’s response was nothing short of mind-boggling.  He said, “Give up? Of course not, just the contrary. I’m closer now than I ever was, because I’ve just discovered 10,000 ways that don’t work.” Even Edison was willing to “test drive” one more way.

So the next time you find yourself sitting in a faculty meeting or staff development training frustrated, exasperated, and aggravated to the point of pessimism and cynicism, stop and silently count to 10 and ask yourself, “Am I willing to trust God enough to test drive just one more way?”  And if you are, then simply do what you can, and then trust God to do what you can’t. Why not try it? It worked for Thomas Edison.