Overcoming the Weight of Failure
The Pause Before the Go: Finding the Presence and Faithfulness of God in Hard Times
Lesson 12: Overcoming the Weight of Failure.
(23) The Lord gave this command to Joshua son of Nun: “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you.” Deuteronomy 31:23
(16) Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
(17) “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
(18) “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, (19) honor your father and mother,’[c] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”
(20) “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
(21) Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
(22) When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
(23) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. (24) Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
(25) When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
(26) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:16-26
One of my favorite films about NASA and the Apollo Moon Landing Program is Apollo 13. In the film, actor Ed Harris plays Mission Controller Gene Kranz. In real life, Gene is a scientist and a supervisor for NASA and is very level-headed and non-emotional, but for the movie Ed Harris wanted to express the emotions Gene wasn’t able to show in the control room during America’s only failed mission to the moon. Throughout the crisis of the disabled spaceship and the peril to the astronauts, Ed Harris’ character goes around bellowing with the voice and resolve of an Army Drill Sergeant reminding everyone including the President that: “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!!!” And as history and the team at NASA showed it was not! However, “FAILING” was not just an option but a requirement for the engineers and scientists to get the astronauts safely home. Equipment, life support, engines, and computers were being forced into completely new and difficult circumstances that they had not been designed for. In order for them to work successfully under new and demanding conditions these machines, and the protocols for their operation had to fail in a thousand improvised immediate trials before they could find that one place and time where they could succeed and save the astronauts’ lives.
I think that with all the momentous changes, difficult circumstances and hard times that we are facing as a nation and as churches right now that I am feeling like those engineers must have felt during Apollo 13! No one wants to fail! Failure is a heavy weight that crushes us and fear of that weight and the shame of its consequences can paralyze us from living effective lives for the Kingdom of God. William Carey once said: “Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” But what is our first natural response to such a statement? “BUT WHAT IF I fail?” We don’t want to fail, we want to succeed. We don’t want to lose, we want to win! Coaches, Church Planters, Professionals all wire their players, members, and staff to win and succeed but in the Christian life we cannot equate earthly success and “winning” with victory because victory belongs to God and our success spiritually is based solely upon our trust in Him, and His grace from the Victory He has already won by the cross and resurrection (Mark 8:36).
Fear of failure can cause us to “chase personal success” in everything we do and not attempt anything that might jeopardize our “chances of succeeding and winning.” With the “Experts” help we come up with ways to “measure success” and strategies, protocols, behaviors and tactics to keep that measurement high and not do anything that will lower it. As a result, life becomes predictable, stagnant, and stressful. Our view of the future becomes anxious and worrisome (Matt 6:25-27), and our faith, which is the hallmark of our testimony, becomes weak while our confidence is shaken.
Jesus’ Words however give us a different and paradoxical picture. It is in dealing with our hardships, our losses, our sufferings, persecutions, trials, and yes, even in our momentous failures that we can rejoice be glad and find the presence and faithfulness of God at work on our behalf with all the Spirit’s power, all the love and victory of God taking us far beyond our wildest dreams, and unrealized expectations (Matt 5:10—12, Luke 12:27-32, John 16:33; Acts 16:19-25). Why can we rejoice in our failures? Why can we “attempt great things for God?” Why can we try the impossible for the Kingdom and fall FLAT and still be filled with joy and peace? Why can we go further and deeper in our life with Jesus through chasing failure more than pursuing success? We have two examples for our lesson today: Deuteronomy 31:23, and Matthew 19:16-26…
Deuteronomy 31:23 sounds a lot like Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” The context of 1:9 is over the “success” Joshua and the Israelites will have in battle and conquest against the Canaanite nations and in receiving the Promised Land, but the context of Deuteronomy 31:23 is much different though the verse and its exhortation sounds very similar. You see, Joshua can be strong and courageous in battle because he will be successful in taking Canaan because God promised it, but what about Deuteronomy 31:23? Here Joshua is commanded to be strong and courageous in the face of the Israelites future and absolute “spiritual” failure! Can Joshua be just as “strong and courageous” in assured FAILURE as he is in assured success? How about us, will we dare to try, will we dare to be strong and courageous in the face of certain failure?
Look at the surrounding verses; Moses is getting ready to pass the baton of leadership, but instead of an awesome and well deserved “retirement party” with awards, accolades, and cheers for encouraging last words from the elder statesman to his protégé and the people- God tells him to go “write a song” (Deut 32). Is it a song of victory or praise? No. How about a cheery little tune “When we all get to Jordan! What a day of rejoicing that will be!” No, it’s a song of lament, doom, and future judgment! Real “happy” stuff it is not! It is a Prophesy of failure, failure, failure of the people following God, and casting out their idols ultimately angering God and leading up to the destruction of the Country and exile! Can you think of Joshua’s feelings and reactions to hearing God’s command to Moses? I know what I would be thinking: “I’m supposed to lead these people in the face of their future rejection and turning their backs on God? I’m supposed to take over knowing they will fail “big time” spiritually (look at verses 24-29) and worse my old mentor and friend has NO encouraging word of success for me! Gee, thanks a lot! How did I get this job? What good is military victory if no one honors God?”
Yet look WHERE God took Joshua in his obedience and faith! Think of what he witnessed, and the miraculous power of God he saw in his life! Something he never would have seen had he been more concerned with success than with obedience and faithfulness; if he had “played it safe” to protect his reputation than dare to fail and face humiliation. Joshua could be faithful in failure and hard times because God is ALWAYS FAITHFUL and is ALWAYS WITH HIM! You see, chasing failure took Joshua much further in His life and walk with God than chasing success ever would have! Success or failure- God gets the victory, God gets the glory! At the end of his life, Joshua was standing where God intended Joshua’s feet to be! At the end of our days there is no greater place of joy, accomplishment or legacy in life than having obeyed God and being where He intended us to be even if in earthly terms we are failures! It’s why Joshua in great spiritual confidence and boldness could throw down the gauntlet before an obstinate people in light of God’s faithfulness to him over a lifetime of obedience as God’s servant and say: “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my household we will serve the LORD! (Joshua 24:15b)”
I know so many of you are standing where Joshua is with your “people” with that kind of exhortation and legacy for your family! I just want to encourage you to keep it up! I know it’s hard. No one wants to deal with COVID-19 restrictions and the current circumstances (especially in later seasons of life). No one wants to deal with and face failure in our attempts but because of God’s faithfulness as saved sinners we ourselves are encouraged to be faithful and to be faithful to the end! We must not let our past or our potential failures paralyze us from ATTEMPTING what’s right and loving to our neighbor or in sharing the Gospel. Nor do we want to use failure as our excuse to presume upon God’s grace and stagnate in our conformity to His likeness.
No, instead we must try! We must remember the exhortation of Hebrews 12:1-3 and throw off the sin, and persevere in our faith. We are fallen humans called to love and help fallen humans (One Another) under the shepherding of our Perfect God and His Faithfulness. We are to remember the provision of His GOSPEL designed and implemented not for the strong and successful, but for the redemption and strengthening of the weak and the hurting the victory of the failing and the fallen! Because “with God all things are possible”…
The story of the Rich Young Ruler is a sad and ironic story. The story of a man who sought wisdom, who revered God and kept His Commandments, who by the spiritual and earthly terms of his day was a success inwardly and outwardly. But Jesus exposed the man’s greatest failure- his inability to let go completely of everything (of wealth) and follow Him. Giving his wealth away was not the problem but that he couldn’t give it up. Jesus then gives a hyperbole (an exaggeration) of: “It’s harder for a rich man to go to heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” The story seems all over at this point. The concluding “moral of the day” seems to be that some people are so captivated by the lusts, and yearnings of the successes of this world that they are beyond hope! They are permanent “failures.” By their own choice they had come close but then wandered off never to return and sadly that’s how some people are willing to leave them but not Jesus! We have verse 26 and that it’s not just for the “rich man” but for all of us. Jesus could have said: Nothing is impossible for God- shutting the door on the possibility of failure- of our failures, but instead Jesus said: “ALL THINGS are possible for God” making room for failure, giving us hope in our redemption. May we hold out the hope that Jesus gives to the failures of this world, to our own failures and may we be amazed with where our willingness to trust in Him and obey Him will take us despite and because of our failures and future failures! “Expect great things from God (His redemptive hand and faithfulness at work.) Attempt great things for God” and be ready to fail spectacularly in those attempts- you will be amazed where His faithfulness will take you when you trust in His name!
Next week will be our last lesson in this series. Please know I am praying for you! Keep trusting and looking to Jesus. We may fail but His love never fails and that love is at work in broken cisterns, in jars of clay that still have Living Water to give! He is with us. I look forward to the day when we can be together, and I know that day will be soon! Love in Christ, Darrin.