Have you ever failed at something? I mean really messed up to the point that you thought there was no fixing it.
Maybe you failed a class, bombed a relationship, made a wrong business move, or said the wrong thing. Well, if your answer is yes, you are in good company because we all have. If we are honest, most of us are simply amazed that we are still here despite all of our failures in life.
But the good news is that our failures can teach us lessons that our successes never could. Walt Disney (who financially failed and went bankrupt several times) once said: “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
1. Seek God’s Direction
One of my favorite (and most frustrating) aspects of the Bible is that it is full of so many stories of how people messed up yet were still used by God. One such story of failure was about a man named Joshua.
Joshua seemed to have everything going for him. His mentor was Moses, he was the leader of the nation of Israelites, and he had seen and heard God do some amazing things like rescuing his people from slavery, parting the red sea, presenting Himself in an unforgettable way on top of a mountain, feeding his people with manna, falling the walls of Jericho, and the list goes on.
But then in Joshua 9, in the aftermath of some amazing victories and in the heat of the moment, Scripture tells us in verse 14, “…[Joshua] did not ask counsel from the LORD” about a decision.
Get this: Joshua thought he was doing the right thing! But deception is always cloaked in sincerity. Our enemy is the master at twisting the truth and making something wrong look right.
So, because Joshua did not first seek God’s direction, he ended up failing himself, his people, and God. His mistake also put others’ lives in danger and resulted in a loss of respect. The Bible says the people “…murmured against him.”
That is often the hardest part, isn’t it? We can deal with so much, but when people start talking about us, criticizing us, gossiping about us, and putting us down, it can be hard to go on. People might say something like:
- “I can’t believe they did that!”
- “How are we going to follow a leader like that…?”
- “If they had only listened to me!”
- “Our last leader wouldn’t have done that!"
But while it is so easy for us to point our fingers in shame at people when they mess up, we need to honestly realize that none of us are immune to failure. In fact, I would say it like this:
We are all a handful of decisions away from destroying our lives.
That's not happy news, but it is the reality of life. We are all a few uninformed, misguided, and unwise choices away from losing our jobs, hurting our families, or messing up our futures.
2. Know You Are Not Alone in Your Failure
One of the first Christian CDs that I ever owned was by a singer named Clay Crosse, who put out some great Christian music in the 1990s. He was even awarded “Best New Artist of the Year” in 1994.
I remember singing along at the top of my lungs to his songs at home or in the car with my friend. I even purchased a couple of “accompaniment tracks” to sing some of his songs in church (by the way — I’m glad that stage of music is gone!).
But after all Clay Crosse’s great musical ministry and career, he fell into a life of habitually cheating on his wife with pornography. His moral and spiritual failure ruined his life and career.
As sad as that was, it is even sadder to know that so many godly men and women have fallen into similar kinds of sin and destroyed their ministries, families, or lives.
Thankfully, by God’s grace and mercy, Clay Crosse later repented of his sin, redeemed his marriage, and eventually got back into ministry, using his failures to teach about purity and holiness. He and his wife now even head up a ministry called HolyHomes that helps encourage marriages across the country.
We hear stories like that, and immediately our human nature puts its “judge hat” on, and we think things like: how could he? Who does that? How could he call himself a Christian? What a hypocrite! What a selfish adulterer he was!
And you know what? We are right — he was selfish and sinful. But you know who else is selfish, wayward, lustful, sinful, hypocritical, and capable of failing in major ways? Me. And guess what? You are, too! We are all a handful of decisions away from destroying our own lives!
So, before we look at someone else and say those famous last words: “I would never do that,” we must realize that it could just as easily be us under fire for our failures next.
It is only ever by God’s grace, the Holy Spirit’s strength, and the accountability of other Christians that we are even here today!
So, does that mean that failure is not that big of a deal? No, of course not. That is similar to the rhetorical question that Paul asked in Romans 6:1: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” Of course, the answer is “no.”
3. Seek God’s Forgiveness in Your Failures
But this does mean that God is merciful enough to forgive us of our failures when we are faithful to confess and repent (1 John 1:9), and he is gracious enough to allow us to learn good lessons from our failures and be used in ways that bring God glory in the end (Romans 8:28).
So even when we fail, may we not fail at humbly turning back to God to allow him to make a masterpiece out of our mess!
The story of Joshua and the story of the gospel, in general, is about the goodness and graciousness of God to step in and help those he loves that have failed so many times yet cry out desperately for his help. That is actually what the name “Joshua” means — “the LORD saves.”
Only God can take our mistakes and make something amazing. Only He can take our losses and turn them into wins. Only He can take our failures and bring victories. He did it for Joshua — and he can do it for you and me!
For further reading:
4 Ways to Find God's Grace in Our Failures
Does God Care about Our Success?
Does God Always Promise Us Peace?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/mixetto
