Leadership Thought: A Mother's Lament about Her Son's Failure

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a distraught mom and member of our church family whose son had just experienced failure on the athletic field. He was discouraged, defeated, and was ready to quit the game he loved.

I am sure many of us can identify with the pain of this mother, for we always want the best for our children.

I would remind this mom and everyone else who might have experienced failure in life that some people get knocked down, and never get up.  Others, however, are like that plastic inflatable figure children play with. No matter how hard or how many times they get hit, they always bounce right back up. They refuse to remain down.

Champions in life know that it is always too soon to quit, and that a winner is one who gets up one more time than he gets knocked down.

Long ago, I memorized the following quote that has always been an encouragement to me whenever I experienced failure. It is called the "Possibility Thinkers Creed."  

"When I come to a mountain, I will not quit. I will climb over it, go around it, tunnel through it, and if none of these are possible, I'll stay there and mine for gold."

I like the kind of determination contained within that little creed. When we know that God is on our side, we understand that success is only a dream away.

Edmund Hillary lost several members of his party while seeking to conquer Mount Everest. He returned to London sad and disappointed by his failure. The royal family planned a celebration to honor him, and they invited all the prestigious dignitaries to be a part of it. 

As Hillary stepped to the podium, everyone applauded. Tears flowed from Hillary's face as he remembered those he left behind on that icy slope.

Behind him was a huge picture of that unconquered mountain on which no man had ever set foot. When the applause died down and it was his time to speak, without saying a word, Hillary turned his back to his audience and raised his hand to the picture of Mount Everest, and forming a fist, he said,  "Mount Everest, I will come back again and defeat you, for you can't get any bigger than I am," and a few years later, he conquered that formidable mountain becoming the first man to ever do so. 

Now that's the kind of attitude I love to see in people, the kind that always knows that it is too soon to quit.

Failure can be  a great teacher. The apostle Peter learned that, and so did David who walked through his own dark valley of discouragement, but one of the best examples of all was the Apostle Paul, who knew something about the challenge of dealing with difficult circumstances. 

In writing to the Corinthian church, he penned these words: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).

Paul was the kind of leader that everyone would love to have on his team. He was the kind of leader who knew that it is always too soon to quit.

Satan's strategy is to keep Christians preoccupied with their failures, and when this happens, he wins the battle. 

Again, and again Satan plays and sings that failure tune, and before long you begin singing it to. 

But I encourage you to sing another song. It goes like this: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4: 13).  

And guess what? Before long, you will discover that you are a winner, and that you too can finish strong in whatever race you run. 

Yours and faith and friendship,

Tom

P.S. An assistant of Thomas Edison once sought to console the inventor over his failure to achieve success in a series of experiments that he had tried. "Oh," said, Mr. Edison, "We have lots of results for we know 700 things that won't work." 

Is it any wonder that Edison invented the light bulb?