The Failure to Succeed
The failure to succeed is often one of the steps to success. Provided that it was not predicated with failure to try or failure to execute, sometimes things simply don’t work the way we had hoped or planned. The MOST important thing to understand is why. If you do not learn from your failures to succeed, you will never be able to make the appropriate changes or adjustments to ultimately succeed.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying it’s going to be fun to fail. Usually it stinks. But keep this in mind: you’re in good company. Any pioneer in any field is familiar with failure. Small businesses go bankrupt, web startups don’t get funded, research leads to inconclusive results, and manuscripts get turned down. But when individuals learn from those failures and persevere…that’s when big breakthroughs occur. If you create a culture where the failure to succeed is expected, then the people who’ve failed can spend time recalibrating, innovating and advancing instead of polishing up their resumes.
As believers, it’s tempting to interpret failure as a sign from God that it’s time to stop. By all means, do take those seasons to pray for guidance. But remember, too, that failure is actually a foundation of our faith. We all fall short of the glory of God, and that’s why we need Jesus. So as the Church, we shouldn’t just accept failure, we should embrace it as an undeniable part of who we are. That knowledge gives us freedom to attempt the impossible, to risk the unthinkable, and to accomplish the incredible things that God wants to do through us.
Have you created a culture at your church that embraces failure? How do you communicate this?
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