Failure: the road to success!

You failed. Welcome to the human race! Spoiler alert: you will fail again. That’s the reality of being human in a broken world. The biblical list of people who failed would exceed the space I have in my blog. From Adam in Genesis 3 to John in Revelation 22 who fell down to worship at the feet of an angel you find scripture filled with people who failed. But that’s life as human beings.

Our society, however, has conflated failing with being a failure. We rush to tag a person with that label once they fail. The result: paralyzing fear of failure. Such fear stifles drive and minimizes risk taking. In such a climate, nothing of great value is accomplished. Heaven forbid we should fail!

Imagine if the disciples decided they couldn’t pull off the whole “make disciples of all nations” thing so they didn’t even try. Maybe they could just stay in Jerusalem with the people they knew and pat each other on the back and that would be good enough. They could succeed at that endeavor. No need to take the risk of publicly sharing Jesus with other Jews who might reject the message or even inform the authorities. And certainly, they shouldn’t bother going to the Samaritans or Gentiles. Those people would never want to listen to a Jew talk about Jesus the Messiah. Guaranteed failure! So let’s just do what we know we can succeed at. 

In Romans 12:11 we read, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” The Greek term for ‘fervent’ in that verse literally means boiling. Don’t be a slacker but serve the Lord passionately. Fortunately for us, the disciples were willing to risk some failures because the mission was worth it. Accomplishing the overall mission mattered far more than some individual failures along the way. Arianna Huffington stated, “Failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success.” How true. Peter demonstrates this well.

Peter passionately followed Jesus, and his passionate service meant he failed at times. Jesus even told him outright that he was going to fail in Luke 22. Peter had boldly asserted that he would never fall away from Jesus even if all those other subpar disciples did. OK. He didn’t actually call them subpar but considering the debate he had about who was the greatest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was thinking it. Jesus turned to Peter and said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” But Jesus also said, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” In other words, “Peter, you’re going to fail in one sense, but I’ve prayed that you will grow through that failure and ultimately succeed.”

Peter’s boldness and passion often got him into trouble. Not only did he deny Christ, but he sank in the sea of Galilee when fear of the storm overtook him. Peter was the one who suggested they build three shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the Mount of transfiguration. That was the wrong call. He was the one who wouldn’t let Jesus wash his feet and then asked Jesus to wash his whole body. Both ideas missed the point. Peter even tried to correct Jesus by telling Him that He would not suffer death. Wrong again and Jesus proceeded to call him Satan.

Peter knew failure, but he wasn’t a failure. His failures grew out of his passion to serve the Lord. He was willing to step out of the boat when the others stayed put. He spoke up when his master prepared to do the unseemly act of washing his feet when the others said nothing. He followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest when most of the disciples ran away. Did he fail? Sure. But he learned and grew from those failures and continued to serve the Lord passionately. And when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to launch His church, who did He select to give the inaugural sermon? Peter. And three thousand souls were born again and became citizens of God's kingdom through faith in Christ. Did Peter fail during his life? Yep. Was he a failure? Absolutely not!

The value I lay before you to consider is PASSIONATE SERVICE. You can not serve God passionately if you are afraid of failure. You will serve tentatively and hesitantly if at all. That’s not the boiling spirit of service that Paul extols in Romans 12:11. “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” Passionate service is willing to risk failure for the kingdom of God. It's willing to talk to that neighbor about Jesus even if they reject the message. It's willing to volunteer at your church even if you've never volunteered before. Now you may find that there are things that God  has not called you to. Passionate service is not foolish service. If you know you can't sing to save your life, then don't quit your day job to start a singing ministry. But we do need to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord!

How do you move past the fear of failure? Acknowledge that you have failed. Own it. Don’t try and cover it up or wrap up your failure in pretty packaging. Simply acknowledge your failure. Next, admit to yourself that you will fail again. Now you shouldn’t be failing in the same way again and again because then you're not learning. But you and I will fail in some other way in the future (remember that whole human thing we’re dealing with). Thirdly, recognize that failure is not inherently bad. Failure means you’re trying. You're doing something. As we passionately serve the Lord, we will fail at times. But we can learn and grow from it. Failure can be a phenomenal teacher. The ultimate goal of building God’s kingdom far outweighs my individual failures. And God may be using my failures to shape and mold me for His purposes. Through failure I can ultimately succeed. God handled Peter’s failures and used that passionate service for His glory. He can handle yours to!

Don’t fear failure. Use it. 

Failure: the road to success!