Getting it right the first time is awesome. It’s smooth and painless. It makes you feel like a pro at whatever you’re doing. It shows a lot of skill, and sometimes it can demonstrate that you did your homework and wisely approached whatever task was in front of you. Getting it right the first time is awesome. Do it as often as you possibly can.
But when you don’t get it right the first time, you have a chance to do something that develops and demonstrates your character. Get it right the second time.
In today’s reading in Project 4:4, There’s a great example in the life of David. The ark of the covenant had been captured and taken away by the Philistines during the reign of Saul. When David took Jerusalem, he desired to bring the ark back there, and so had it loaded up on a cart to be transported to its intended locale. along the way, the cart jostled, and one of them men, Uzzah, reached out to steady the ark with his hand, and fell down dead immediately. This gets everyone’s attention in a hurry, and they decide that they need to treat the ark with the respect and indeed fear that it deserved. So David stops and has the ark housed in the town closest to where Uzzah had died.
Three months later, two significant things have changed. First and most obviously, David finds out that the man who is housing the ark temporarily is being blessed abundantly! Beyond that, though, David has done his homework, and the version in Chronicles tells that David now knows that the reason behind Uzzah’s death was that they hadn’t been respecting the ark properly by following God’s commands for how it was to be carried. He says to the Levites, whom he gathers, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” (I Chron 15:12-13) So this time, David follows the rules, and in this moment we see perhaps his greatest moment of celebration. David dances before the Lord, part of the procession of the ark as it comes in properly, carried on poles on the shoulders of levites.
This whole episode of carrying the ark into newly captured and established Jerusalem, in preparation for its permanent placement in the temple , was part of one of David’s big projects. The establishment of Jerusalem as the political and religious heart of Israel was one of his most significant legacies. But don’t miss out on the fact that he didn’t get it right the first time. In fact, this shouldn’t be glossed over, his failure led to a man’s death. But, he didn’t give up. Nor did he try to do it again the very same way. He fixed the mistake, and got it right the second time. That makes a huge difference, and shows us something of David’s character.
It can also show us something of ours.
Look, I hope you get most things right the first time. You should try to do that, and can spare some heartache and waste, if not waste of life! But most of us are blessed with more than a few times when the first go around doesn’t really go that well. In those chances, show what you’re made of. Have the courage and perseverance to try again, and the humility to change what you need to change. Get it right the second time.
