Grappling With Failure

The Overflow is back after taking an Easter holiday and just in time for a pair of new teaching series that will extend until the end of June. First up, failure!

Why take a deep dive into failure? Here’s how I explained it in the introductory message:

In our culture we often minimize the ways that life is hard and suffering is normal and one of the reasons I suspect that too many people are anxious and depressed is because nobody properly prepared them for this basic reality and how to live through it.

Failure is a part of life – personal failure, living through the failure of groups and organizations, the failures of our leaders, and the failures of plans and projects. Failure is all around us. How we respond to our failures and the failures of the people and systems that connect to us will play a big role in our ability to experience peace and happiness, and it can be one of the ways that we show ourselves to be set apart as followers of Jesus.

I'm out of storage space for new images, so here's the closest thing I could find in the Wix database for "failure"!

One of the nice things about failure as a topic is that I could pick almost any part of the Bible to preach from. My Old Testament professor was fond of reminding his class that “the only hero in the Bible is God.” Every human figure is deeply flawed and prone to all kinds of serious mistakes and wicked actions. Just like real people.

That’s something I appreciate about the Bible because it helps us to recognize the dark and damaged parts of ourselves while also offering an answer. That answer is a gracious God, and ultimately the cross of Christ where the debt for sin was paid. No personal failure is greater than that. If you fail, no matter how spectacularly, God’s love for you is undiminished.

This is true beyond personal failure. The New Testament, and Paul's letters in particular, show us that there was plenty of disfunction, conflict, and confusion in the early Church. The early Christians had to be regularly reminded of the importance of bearing with each other in love in order to maintain unity despite the failures (or perceived failures) of their brothers and sisters.

One thing that can be especially discouraging for many Christians is when high-profile leaders fail. Adultery, abuse, embezzling and more happen and can even become front page news. But the Bible speaks to this as well. The best-intentioned leaders in scripture suffered from failures, and God's people often suffered under the rule of leaders who were anything but well-intentioned.

The Bible also speaks to the failure on a large scale. The Hebrew people failed in battle, failed to keep their worship pure, failed to defend their kingdom, and suffered plenty of other set-backs along the way. There is always a need to rebuilt, re-start, and reform because the systems and institutions around us can and will fail us at times.

These are the areas we'll explore in the series to come. Personal failure, bearing with the failures of others, failure of our leaders, and the failure of major projects or whole institutions. The Bible has plenty to say about all of this, and it rings just as true in 2023 as it ever has.

For today I want to come back to personal failure with a reminder that failures are often a necessary step toward success, greater wisdom, or the humility that mature people and effective leaders all need.

I collected a few quotes about failure the speak to this which didn't make it into this week's sermon, so here is some bonus content!

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ― Winston S. Churchill

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”

- Denis Waitley

“We are all failures - at least the best of us are.”

- J.M. Barrie

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

- Henry Ford

“Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”

- C.S. Lewis

One last thought from this week's message as a reminder to be gracious to yourself in failure:

Be gracious to yourself in failure. Learn the lessons you ought to learn, but don’t simply dwell on failure and convince yourself that it means you’re no good, or good for nothing. You are just as loved by God immediately after the worst failure of your life as you were right before. And the character you gain if you actually grapple with failure, God helping you, may allow you to bless someone or serve in some way that would never have been possible otherwise.

Hebrews 4:15-16: This High Priest of ours [Jesus!] understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Here's a prayer to send you back to your day from Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life:

Lord, help me let go of my fear of failure. I know Satan wants to use my fears to hold me back from living boldly for You. Forgive me for not living in faith, and help me from this moment on to live with bold confidence in You. Lord, help me not compare myself to others around me. I pray instead that I can keep my eye on You and live a life that proclaims Your excellence. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.