Think of your favorite movie. Time would fail me to list all titles here. Have you ever wondered how the cast seems to perform so perfectly? Doesn’t anyone make mistakes? But then you view behind the scenes footage and discover that it typically necessitates multiple takes to nail a scene. In fact, the number of takes can range from one or two to hundreds.

Here are a couple of examples of movies with multiple takes. In Order of the Phoenix, one of films in the Harry Potter series, English filmmaker David Yates required approximately thirty takes per scene. Also, Jackie Chan in Young Master took 329 takes to perfect the scene in him beating up someone with a fan.

In my life I’ve noticed that I approach some situations tentatively because of fear that I couldn’t handle the task or the outcome if I were to jump in with both feet. At other times I become too eager and overdo my effort. Then I end up hurting myself. How can I use enough push to do yet not too much to not overdo? Have the courage and self-control to do it right the first time.

We are not perfect and at times we will require multiple takes. But we can strive to function regularly with courage and control. I realized that in this way I no longer need to fear anything because the goal is for the best outcome with my best effort.

There are times when we falter even with our best efforts and may conclude we cannot make it. Here we need to remember that some things we just cannot accomplish in our own capacity. We know that if we are not in the right frame of mind, we cannot even accomplish much of anything. So, let us acknowledge God in all we do and allow Him to continue to fuel us to do multiple takes if needed or even to do it right the first time.

And Jesus said to Him, “’If you can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.”

(NASB, Mark 9:23)