Dear Friend,
If you were in a class and the teacher asked you how many of you
have ever failed, I am sure every hand would be raised. No one gets through
life without failing. However just because you fail does not mean you are a
failure.
No one would suggest Thomas Edison was a failure and yet is has
been said he failed over 1000 time in his efforts to make the light bulb. He
was not a failure because he learned from his failures.
Someone said failure is getting up one more time than you get
knocked down, and like Thomas Edison an expert is merely someone who has failed
more times than anyone else in the field but refuses to give up.
Failure never leaves us the same. You and I always have a choice
when we face it. When we fail at something, we can choose to leave our failure
behind, and determine never to try it again, or we can learn from it, grow
through it, and change for the better.
Failure is never fatal but failure to change might be. Just ask
the alcoholic who continues to follow the same path that always leads to the
same outcome. Sobriety is achieved by making different choices and by learning
from past decisions.
A failure is never a failure if you learn from it. Like a former
football coach would tell his players, “If you’re going to fail, then fail
forward in the direction of the goal.
“Failure is not an event; it is only a judgment about an event.”
How I view it will determine what I do with it.
Warren Bemis a leadership expert interviewed 70 top executives in
various fields of learning, and none of them viewed their mistakes or failure
as failures. Some described them as “detours”, “learning experiences,”
“opportunities for growth,” and the one I like best, “tuition paid.”
Satan's strategy is to get us preoccupied with our failures, and
once he has accomplished this, he has won the battle.
Paul, however, knew how to deal with the devil’s strategy for in
Philippians 3: 13-14 he writes, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or
have already been made perfect, (Paul realized his failures and his
limitations), but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is
ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Paul did not look back, and neither should we,
except to learn from our mistakes so that we will not repeat them again.
Wouldn't you like to have been there when Jesus talked to Peter
after the resurrection? I am sure that Peter must have begged for forgiveness
for his failure in forsaking his Lord. But if I know Jesus, He probably said to
Peter, “That's okay, ‘bro’. You may have failed, but you are forgiven. You may
have failed, but your failure is forgotten. You may have failed, but you're not
a failure. You have failed, but I know you are going to finish strong and
finish strong he did.
Don't let your failures make you a prisoner of the past. Don’t
give up, for it is always too soon to quit. Remember the words of the psalmist
who wrote, “If the Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm;
though he stumbles, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His
hand” (Psalm 37: 23- 24).
I don't know where you are in life or how often you have felt like
a failure, but remember the victorious Christian life is a series of new
beginnings, and you can start today. Clear the slate. Start over again. Don't
look back, and keep your eyes on the goal, and if you do, I know you will
discover the joy of finishing strong.
Yours in Christ and one desiring to fail forward,
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