Failing Forward

The purpose of this document is to notice God’s ability to bring the greatest successes out of what seemed like His biggest leader’s worst mistakes, releasing the reader from guilt, shame, hopelessness, or feelings of disqualification.  This is our first article that is less scholarly and more devotional, so you have to look up some scriptures yourself this time.

Failure: Springboard to Destiny

Most leaders fear failure because they see it as:

  1. The end of a story, instead of the springboard to destiny. 
  2. A deviation from the “perfect” life or plan that the world expects of them (shame & perfectionism).
  3. a topic that they relate to from the position of hopelessness and defeat, instead of from the victory that we already have in, through, and by Christ.

 

Christ

Death

Satan would like to think that Jesus hanging on the cross was the end of the story.  This, he knows appears to men as the ultimate failure: 

  1. Public open shame of apparent defeat – in front of his whole community where he grew up.
    1. hanging to be executed as a criminal
    2. naked
    3. bleeding
    4. beat up
    5. dying
    6. mocked

 

God forsaken?

People sinned when they wondered what brought about this terrible end.  “What did he do to miss his calling?”  “Where did he fail?”  Even Jesus asked their question when he took on their (our) sin:

 

Mark 15:34
And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

 

It is a sin to ask this question because it is worldly to see failure as the end of the story.  Just because you failed does not mean that God has forsaken you or did forsake you. 

 

Perfectionism

Could hating your life (in this world) be referring to the willingness to fail in general or in life as whole? 

 

John 12:23-25 (NIV)

 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

 

Failing does not mean that God has forsaken you.  In verse 24, it is the death that brings multiplication (many seeds).

 

Resurrection

In Christ’s fulfillment of his own prophecy, he was the first to rise from the dead, with many other seeds following.  Whatever you think has failed or died - a calling, a ministry, a vocation, a marriage – may be resurrected from the dead.  Or it could be dead for now, or for good, and this could release you to your destiny. 

 

 

Apostles

Apostle Paul seemed to have a penchant for justice, righteousness, arguing for the truth… and getting thrown in prison.  They said they would have released him if he had not appealed to Caesar.  Paul may have thought, “If I had kept my mouth shut, I could be an apostle right now, instead of a prisoner.”  But isn’t this “failure” how we got the book of Romans?  Was Paul in chains for the Gospel or for his personality?  The answer is “yes”.  Accepting your personality in all its strengths and weaknesses is key to gracefully failing forward. 

 

Kings

God’s covenant of sure mercy with David blessed him despite his moral failures.  His baby died because of adultery, and he was not allowed to build the temple because he was a man of bloodshed. He faced the consequences of his sins, but overall, he was called “a man after God’s own heart.”  It you have had a moral failure, remember that God is the God of tomorrow and discouragement is the voice of the past. 

 

 

Summary

The keys to remember while failing forward:

  1. Failure is the beginning, not the end.  Look for God’s redemptive plan.
  2. Failure is not a bad word – Perfectionism is.  Transparently failing forward with God and others is how we possess our land.
  3. Hopelessness only applies to those in Hell and you are not there, so don’t receive hopelessness.

 

 

 

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