Failure

Are you ready for a fresh start? A new beginning? A clean slate? Yesterday is over. Can’t get it back. There are no do-overs. Today is new and full of potential.

So, check this out. You are your father’s favorite son and your brothers’ worst nightmare. It doesn’t help that you bring bad reports about them to your father and brag about dreams in which they bow down to you. They plan to kill you, mercifully throw you into a cistern instead, and then not so mercifully sell you to a traveling band of Ishmaelites.

C. S. Lewis wrote, “The human spirit will not begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it.” When we are good, we’re good. We don’t need God. As one person said, “We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.”

What’s holding you back? Could it be the fear of failing? Or failing again? Maybe you were serious about your walk with Christ and made progress…for a while. But then life got in the way, and you fell back into the same old habits. Now you are thinking, “What’s the use? I don’t want to fail again.” “I don’t want to make commitments I can’t keep.” “I don’t want to start something I can’t finish.” “I don’t want to get hurt in another relationship.” “I don’t want to disappoint God…again.”

Sebastian Coe was one of the greatest middle-distance runners in England’s history. During his career, he set eleven world records and won gold medals in the 1,500-meter event at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. He was favored to win the 800-meter event at the 1980 Olympics but lost to his archrival and countryman, Steve Ovett. That loss delivered fear to his heart when he faced Ovett six days later in the 1,500-race. What if he failed?

Sometimes, the fear of failure causes us to freeze. We simply can’t make a decision for fear it will be the wrong one. And sometimes, the fear of failure causes us to take matters into our own hands. No time to wait for God. After all, it’s your job, your career, your marriage, your children. You know what’s best. You say, “I will not fail! Here’s what I must do!” Fear makes us unpredictable. Sometimes, we fight; sometimes, we freeze. That’s what happened to a man named King Saul.

My friend is a daredevil…to say the least. I had never seen him back down from anything. That’s why I was so surprised he wouldn’t climb the pole to the zipline platform. Granted, the platform was high and the climb precarious, but I never expected him to say, “I’m not climbing that pole!” No matter how much we encouraged and cajoled, his feet stayed planted on the ground. Here’s one thing I concluded from my friend’s refusal: Everybody has a “Pole of Fear.” You may be described as a risk taker, but there is something you won’t or can’t do because of your fear.

We can’t always control how our children will respond. Sometimes they will need to learn life’s lessons through their own failures. But, parents, never give up on them even when it seems like they are not listening. The older they get, the smarter you get.

Worry is not a personality trait; it is a spiritual problem.