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"We will only be a success when we can live
without success." --Author Unknown
Because of our humanity we've all been prone to fail
in this life. Nobody is perfect.
But the question remains, is failure the end or could
it be a new beginning? If it is a new beginning, where will you get
the strength to go on and rebuild the shattered dream?
Experience tells us the key to walking in victory is
finding the freedom to fail. And yet rarely are we taught to expect or
accept failure, or are we shown how to learn from it.
The writer A.W. Tozer once wrote, "We must be
ready to benefit from failure, rather than burn out from
success."
From a Biblical perspective, some of the greatest
achievements in history have come from very ordinary, imperfect people
who have overcome failure to be used of God in a significant way.
Their lives model principles for overcoming failure.
I. Do not try to hide or conceal your failures.
We all feel like Charlie Brown on occasion, when Lucy once summed up
his life's effectiveness, as she said "You, Charlie Brown, are
a foul ball in the line drive of life! You're in the shadow of your
own goal post! You are a miscue! You are three puts on the eighteenth
green! You are a seven-ten split in the tenth frame; a love set! You
have dropped a rod and reel in the lake of life! You are a missed free
throw, a shanked nine iron and a called strike!"
Though success is an exclusive club, failure is an
all-inclusive one. And yet there are some people who spend their lives
trying to cover-up their mistakes. They become prisoners of pretense,
retreating into fabrication and delusion. Their entire lives become a
charade, a great hypocrisy.
The only way out of the despair of failure is to come
clean with yourself and admit that you've failed. Be willing to
honestly confess the mishap and move on to restoration.
II. Do not be discouraged by your failures.
The key to benefiting from failure is to not allow it to stop you.
Did you know that Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Edison,
Richard Byrd, and Walt Disney were all considered failures before they
went on to their greatest achievements?
These men knew that produce is grown down in the
valley, not up on the mountaintop--they also knew that success in not
measured by how high you fly, but how high you bounce.
Even in the better living book called the Bible we
read of failures that were used to accomplish great things.
Moses: A shepherd hiding as a fugitive from justice
yet used to deliver an entire nation from slavery.
A woman, who failed in marriage seven times, used to reach a city with
a message of hope.
Matthew: A crooked tax collector, yet made into an
apostle and a biographer of Christ.
Peter: A cussing sailor who failed Christ in his
darkest hour, denying Him three times, yet made an apostle.
The good news is that God can do the same thing in our
lives. Contrary to what religion may tell you, God does not easily
give up on people.
Yes, the pain of failure is great, but before you
resign in life ask God to be re-assigned. Failure could be the open
door for a whole new level of living. Your disappointment may be God's
appointment, for failure is no time to give up, it's time to step-up.
III. Do not let the fear of failure keep you from
attempting great things.
Some people are petrified at the thought of failure. They would rather
face anything than the ego shattering experience of trying something
and having it end in failure.
As a result, they adopt a "play-it-safe"
philosophy and end up not doing anything at all. What they overlook is
the important truth in life that states it is not until we are free to
fail that we are free to succeed.
The great golfer Arnold Palmer wrote, "I play to
win even when common sense should tell me that I no longer have a
chance. Even when I have been playing at my worst, or when all the
breaks have been going against me, I approach each new day, each new
hole, as a glorious opportunity to get going again."
Maybe you've been playing at your worst and have had
all the breaks go against you. No doubt you could be hurting,
disgusted and busted. But don't quit. Approach each new day as a
glorious opportunity to get going again.
Go out and climb the mountain of success in spite of
the fear. You can be free enough in your faith to take the risks that
bring reward.
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