Overcoming Failure
Romans 3:23 and James 3:2
Sooner or later, everyone will experience failure. There are some here today who have had more successes than failures yet failure is a universal experience. Some of the greatest people in history have had their life checkered with failure. Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting while he was alive and that was to his brother. Albert Einstein failed math in school. Josephine Bake failed in her singing career in America before going to Paris and becoming a world-renowned singer. Walt Disney was fired because of a lack of creativity only to become the greatest graphic artist in history. Babe Ruth set the major league record for strikeouts and had 5 consecutive strikeouts in a World Series game. Michel Jordan failed to make his high school basketball team.
Some of the greatest figures throughout Scripture have experienced failure. God promised Abraham a son with his wife Sarah but after two decades they couldn’t wait and he impregnated his wife’s servant. Moses was a murderer and wanted fugitive before he became God’s chosen instrument to free his people from slavery. God made David a King and yet he committed adultery and then had her husband killed. And yet, he became a man after God’s own heart. Peter, the man whom Jesus called “The Rock” and said, “Upon you I will build my church” denied Jesus three times. Yet he becomes the leader of the disciples and the early church. Saul was the greatest persecutor of the early church and murdered many followers of Jesus only to become its greatest missionary, evangelist, theologian and church planter.
Failure is something we all experience. It does not discriminate by wealth, status, education or influence. And failure can take many forms. There are vocational failures, relational failures, physical failure s and spiritual failures. When any of these happen in our lives, not only can we feel like we have failed but we can feel like we are failures. And there is a huge difference between the two. William Brown said it best: “Failure is an event not a person.” Failure is not determined by the mistake you made. Your response to failure determines your level of success and accomplishment in life. It determines who you become as a person but more importantly, who you become in Christ.”
There are people who have failed and risen above it to become something better and greater. And there are people who have failed and it has kept them down and they became only a shadow of what they could have been. It’s the difference between failing backward and failing forward, between one who is overwhelmed and one who rises above. Failure happens to all of us, so we need to know how to respond to failure as follower of Christ. Because not only is the world watching, but your response determines the path of your life and spiritual growth. So how can we fail forward? First, face your failures honestly. Instead of blaming others, claim responsibility. Instead of looking to someone else as the reason you failed, honestly look at yourself. People fail in direct proportion to the excuses they make for failure. Excuses are the exits off the freeway of life and every time you take one, you begin to fail to make progress. We all fail. We just hate admitting our failures. But it is the first and crucial step to failing forward. Part of what can help us do that is to recognize everyone fails. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And James 3:2 says, “We all stumble in many things.” Realizing you are not alone can help us to honestly face our failures.
Second, make God a part of your failures. Do you think God is surprised by our failures? Do you think God sees Tim fail and then says, “My goodness, never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that happening!” Of course God sees and knows about our failures and yet so often God is the last person we turn to. In Joshua 7, Joshua sends his army against the city of Ai and because of they had recently routed their enemies, the Israelites underestimate Ai and are resoundingly defeated. There is great loss of life. In response, Joshua falls on his face before God and cries out to him in prayer. In doing so, Joshua invites God into the midst of his failure. So often when we fail, we turn to a spouse, a friend, a co-worker or a relative when the person we need to turn to first is God. When we let God be involved in our failures, it draws on his wisdom and insight and allows us to keep perspective. Why? When you compare a failure to eternity, it’s not a failure. In God’s economy, there is no such thing as failure, only opportunities for growth. Remember, God does not seek success, only faithfulness. And when we turn to God, we draw upon the power of the resurrection to overcome failure so that it doesn’t become a roadblock but a stepping stone.
Third, learn and grow from your failure. IBM founder Tom Watson guided the company for over 40 years. One of his most impressive moments in leadership occurred when a junior executive lost $10 million on a risky venture for the company. Watson called the man into the office who nervously blurted out, “I guess you want my resignation.” And Watson replied, “You can’t be serious. We’ve just spent $10 million dollars educating you.” Mistakes are great teachers that provide us with invaluable lessons if we allow them to be. So, don’t waste your failures, learn all you can from it. Unfortunately, this is so rare. So when Joshua and the Israelites experience defeat, Johshua rips his clothes, falls on his face and begins praying to God asking God what can be done now. Joshua teaches us that in the middle of a failure we need to ask God, “What can I learn right now? What can you teach me?” Joshua’s prayer can change the course of our life. They can resurrect relationships. They can spur our spiritual growth. But for that to happen, you have to go to God in prayer and ask him to teach you what you need to learn from this failure.
Fourth, put your failures behind you and move forward. Proverbs 24:6 reminds us, “For a righteous man may fall seven times, he rises again.” S. I. Hayakawa writes, “Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times’ and what happens when he says, ‘I am a failure.” Too often, we allow our failures of the past to spoil our future. Everyone fails. What we need to remember is that we do not have to stay down. Oliver Goldsmith says, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising each time we fall.” You may not be able to reclaim the loss, undo the damage or reverse the consequences, but you can make a new start – being wiser, more sensitive, renewed by the Holy Spirit and more determined to succeed. People who fail forward look to the future rather than the past. Kyle Rote, Jr. said, “there is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is only one way to be a loser and that is to fail is not to look beyond the failure.” Paul put this this way: “This one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize.” Phil 3:13 When we do, failure is not an ending but a new beginning. So resolve to move forward. James Faillace tells of being 7 years old with his toes curled tightly over the edge of the diving board and the refreshing blue water 12 feet below. He found himself for the very first time on a high diving board. With friends cheering below, which seemed more like a mile away than 12 feet, he was faced with a decision that one step forward would bring great accomplishment, pride and acceptance or one step backward would bring great failure, embarrassment and ridicule. Those who fail forward resolve to step forward.” And then he says, “The most profound words ever spoken to me came on the platform at my college graduation as he received his diploma: “keep moving!”
Fifth, remember God’s love is not dependent on our success. “For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins.” 1 Cor. 15:3 No matter how you have failed, who you have let down or hurt, the Savior who died for you still loves you. As Paul wrote, “Love never fails. ” 1 Cor. 13:8 God’s grace and forgiveness is always available to you. God has not abandoned you. His love is always faithful as He is always faithful. “Be of strong courage, fear not for the Lord thy God…will not fail, nor forsake you.” Deut. 31:16 No matter how you may have failed or how big of a bluner you might have made, God will never stop loving you. The reason is, “You are a child of God in whom Christ dwells.” And absolutely nothing will ever that. God’s love will never fail us.
Sixth, remember God can use our failures. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 What we do for God and His kingdom, even when it may not work out like we had hoped, does not fail. Years ago, I heard the story of a preacher who went to a small town to preach a series of sermons in a revival. His attempt was to evangelize the little town. He preached every night for two weeks and during that whole time, only one little girl responded gave her life to Christ. The preacher left dejected thinking the revival was a failure and for years, he bemoaned the great effort he had expended with such little result. But that little girl grew up to be a strong, faithful Christian woman. She married a Christian man, and together they produced several sons, all of whom became preachers of the gospel. Those sons converted thousands of unbelievers to Christ. What we do for the kingdom will not fade away. We are responsible for planting seeds. Only God is responsible for the harvest.
Pastor Randy Kanipe tells the story of a Sabbath time away from his church while he was struggling with failure. He happened to be walking by a cow pasture and stopped to gaze over the fence, pondering the 'green pastures' that he imagined God leading him through - my attention was drawn down to a big, round, flat - dried out cow pie. Lovely sight! But right smack in the middle of that pile of dung was a single, beautiful flower. It was blooming and doing it's best to grow as God designed, but surrounded by a foul stench, and a horrid mess. The contrast between the beauty of the flower and the stench of its surroundings was powerful. Yet somehow, God gave the flower the ability to bloom where it had been planted. Obviously, the seed was there before the cow made her deposit, and the flower had to push its way up and through that muck. But it eventually did, and it brought forth great beauty. On looking around further - he spotted several more flowers trying to grow in the middle of a pile of cow poop! I thought, you know - there are the precious souls in my church who know all about the stink, who know who’s responsible for the deposits, and can do absolutely nothing to move itself or the poop. Yet it blooms anyway. In spite of their surroundings and in spite of the overwhelming stench surrounding them, they bloom. And then he writes, “Sometimes our lives can seem like that - doing our best to bloom where planted, to grow in spite of the stuff heaped upon us and the stench that overpowers our best efforts to make the world a better smelling place. Yet bloom, we do…. because the power of God is life! It is life giving, it is life sustaining and it is life enhancing. The light will shine and the darkness shall not overcome it. The beacon on a hill, not hidden under a bushel basket!”
George Frederick Handel in the early 1700’s literally held the world in his hand as the greatest writer and composer of his day. But in 1740 things went sour for him, and within two years, he was penniless and a beggar. He was struck with paralysis in one leg and just shuffling the streets of London, a pathetic sight for all to see. One day a very well known writer came to him and laid on his desk a manuscript and said, “I believe music ought to be written to these words.” Handel’s first response was he didn’t want to do it. He had experienced enough failure and wasn’t going to try one more time and fall flat on his face. But when as he carefully read the manuscript, he was moved by one passage, “He is despised and rejected of men, looked for one to have pity on him but there was no one. Neither found he any comfort in them.” Those words spoke to the heart of Handel and he continued to read until he came to these words: “I know my Redeemer Livith.” For the next 21 days with almost no sleep, he composed the score to go to these words. In his diary, he wrote: “I think I see heaven before me and great God standing and watching over me.” When finished, it was performed at the London Symphony Hall and King George II heard for the first time this piece known as “The Messiah.” By the time the Hallelujah Chorus broke out, King George rose to his feet as did every one else in the concert hall. And that’s where the tradition of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus began. A man who was on the top of the music world and hailed by everyone just two years before and then became penniless and despised, had just written the greatest musical piece of all time.
Our response to times of trouble and failure literally becomes our witness to our faith. Steve Brown writes, “For every non-Christian who has cancer, a Christian will have cancer so the world will see the difference. For every non-Christian who has a business failure, a Christian will have a business failure so the world will see the difference.” Amen and Amen
