Failure
I was thinking...
Have you ever failed at something? I certainly have failed at many things. I love the game of baseball (Go Braves!), and it is said baseball is a ‘game of failure’. You can fail at batting two-thirds of your ‘at-bats’ and still make the All-Star team, and if you consistently fail in this way, you will ultimately be inducted into the ‘Baseball Hall of Fame’. The overriding issue of Baseball is not, “Will I fail or not?” The issue is “What will I do with my failure?” or, another way to ask the question is “How will I respond to failure?”
Failure is not really failure unless we allow it to be. Failure is really about response. Winston Churchill said it best when he said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” I like that mindset…I bet you do too. No one likes to fail, but when we see failure as an opportunity to learn life’s deeper lessons, then failure becomes a blessed teacher.
Psalm 37:23-24 expresses an important reminder, “A person’s steps are made secure by the Lord when they delight in his way. Though they trip up, they won’t be thrown down, because the Lord holds their hand.” The Psalmist reminds us of our human frailty. We are going to ‘trip up,’ but if we invite the Lord to hold our hand, then our ‘tripping’ will not be a destructive finality. Our stumbling failures will be constructive learnings. As one person wrote, “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat.” (Denis Waitley)
There is no doubt that life is filled with disappointment, discouragement, and failed attempts to achieve. That is not in question. What is in question is our responses along the way. Will we allow failure to be our ultimate conclusion? Or will we allow failure to be a building block for a step forward and upward?
I am spending a great deal of my time these days at the baseball field watching grandsons play this game of failure. I have always known of what is called the ‘Little League Dad/Mom’ who embodies frustration and criticism for their son when he fails in this game of failure. Yet what I have witnessed more is what I will call ‘the encouragement parent’. Whether they be a parent, grandparent, or friend, I am pleased to experience the encouragement offered from these bystanders for their sons, grandsons, and friends. They are the ones who boost morale when failure comes knocking in strike outs and miscues of all sorts. It is the encouragement that wins the day when failure comes knocking.
This is an example of why we need each other. When I fail (and I do on many days in many ways…especially since I’m a golfer) it is the words and actions of the observer that either empower or deflate my next swings in life. I need reminding, and maybe you do too, that failure is not defeat…it is simply a lesson in the process of learning for a better living that is to come my way.
The great inventor, Thomas Edison, knew this well. He was quoted as saying, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” I resemble that remark…how about you? How many ways have we found that won’t work? These are not failures…they are lessons, if we let them be lessons.
In his senior years of life, the Apostle Paul knew it was important to convey to the early believers in Rome that “The Law stepped in to amplify the failure, but where sin increased, grace multiplied even more. The result is that grace will rule through God’s righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord...” (Romans 5:20-21, CEB)
Failure is only failure if we let it be failure (and you can quote me on that). Strike three may be an out in baseball, but strike three doesn’t mean we won’t get another swing next time it is our turn to bat.
How are we responding to the inevitable failures in our lives? Let’s give ourselves some grace, shall we? May failure be a stepping stone rather than a dead end for you…for me…for ALL people. If we give grace, it may surprise us how much grace we will receive…just saying.
Always Thinking…
