Sometimes we are overwhelmed with the failures we see in the world because we are so aware of our own. I’ve never talked to anyone, who was being honest, has never admitted failures during their life. As long as one breaths, you will have failures. It’s very possible that the failures we experience in our lives are some of the hardest obstacles we will ever have to face. Failures come in all sizes from the very small to the very large. Usually the small failures don’t impact us too much because we usually forget about them. If I hit my thumb with a hammer, it’s most likely it’s because I failed to aim the head of the hammer properly. Besides being painful and learning a lesson from the experience, once my thumb quits throbbing, I most likely forget about it. It’s the bigger failures in our lives that we tend to hold onto much longer. Yes their ramifications are generally more significant but both small and larger failures have some things in common.
One of the more comforting aspects of failures is that we aren’t the only ones making them. Regardless of the size of a failure, it’s annoying to say the least. We perceive all failures as a shot against our self esteem. We are often afraid that people will see us and remember us for our failures. An athlete is not celebrated for the games he has lost; the photographer throws away his poor pictures; the potter reshapes his marred jars; and the painter displays only his best portraits.
Most folks don’t like looking at themselves in a negative way. All failures require that we are going to have to spend more time and energy to make the situation right. Most of all, failures in our lives can cause us to think that our lives are FAILURES. This happens generally when we aren’t using the proper yardstick of success.
You may not have noticed but God has different measurements for failure and success than we do. Paul the Apostle was not acclaimed during his lifetime. He was rejected by Jews and held in suspicion by Gentiles. He was stoned, beaten, imprisoned, mocked by some, and ignored by others. He spent his life starting little churches that were soon overtaken with problems so big that the members needed revisiting and letters written to them to straighten out their difficulties. Paul taught the truth only to discover that some who received it on one day were turning the next day to some false doctrine. No glory crowned his life, nor was any success evident when, during his last days, his friends deserted him as he was held prisoner. In the end, he was shamefully executed.
Yet, when we look back on the ministry of Paul, we see that he was indeed a successful failure. One-half of the books of the New Testament are from his pen, and he is now hailed by many as the greatest Christian missionary of all time!
Another example of perspective in relationship to failure is Thomas A. Edison. He recorded 1,093 patents. Most of these inventions were impractical or unmarketable. They were failures. But a man who invented the phonograph, the mimeograph, and the electric light bulb could afford a lot of failures. He was so inept in business matters that he lost control of the profitable companies that he founded, and yet in the depths of the depression, he died with an estate of $2,000,000. Edison was a successful failure.
It is obvious that you learn as you fail. You also grow as you fail, but you must dare to fail. If you can fail enough, you will learn a lot; but if you are too proud to fail, then you will not enjoy success. If you allow your failures to over power you, you are not going to be anywhere as useful in our Lord’s service as you could be.
Like everything else in our lives, we need to give our failures to the Lord and let Him deal with them. He understands that we are human and since the Garden of Eden, we have, an almost a genetic, inability to be perfect. God the Father, Jesus His Son and God the Holy Spirit not only understand this and aren’t holding it against us. I don’t believe they are loosing any sleep over it either. If your failures aren’t keeping the Triune God Head awake at nights, why should they you? Cut yourself some slack. Move on and try to do better. That is what Jesus wants you to do.
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