failure is inevitable… and so is victory
Do you not know that all the runners run in a race, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Brethren, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus
(1Corinthians 9.24; Philippians 3.13,14)
Failure is inevitable. It is not a question of ‘If?’ It is simply a matter of ‘When?’ At the heart of the matter is our mistaken notion that the experience of failure is an epitaph—a verdict—that marks us for the remainder of our lives. It is almost as if Descartes’ famous Enlightenment dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” has mutated into an equally errant postulation, “I fail, therefore, I am a failure.”
Setbacks, missed expectations, unrealistic goals, rejection, mistakes, ineffective programs/results, poor decisions, poor timing, etc… All this and more are the realities of life. Yet, wisdom, focus, faith, resolve, character, and hope arise from God’s grace.
Failure is inevitable. We need a Holy Spirit-inspired resiliency that empowers us to press on toward winning the prize for which God has called us heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
Next week, pastors from my denomination will gather in Washington, D.C., for our annual Foursquare Connection. If you happen to be at the Lincoln Memorial, consider this: no one exemplifies resiliency amidst failure better than Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States.
· His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them (1818).
· His mother died (1831).
· He failed in business (1832).
· He lost his job and wanted to attend law school but couldn’t get in (1833).
· He borrowed money from a friend to begin a business, and he was bankrupt by the end of the year. (1834).
· He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt (1834).
· He ran for state legislature again and won (1835).
· He was engaged to be married, his sweetheart died, and his heart was broken (1836).
· He had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months (1838).
· He sought to become speaker of the state legislature but was defeated (1840).
· He sought to become an elector and was defeated (1843).
· He ran for Congress and lost (1846).
· He ran for Congress again, and this time, he won (1848)!
· He ran for re-election to Congress and lost (1849).
· He sought the job of land officer in his home state and was rejected (1854).
· He ran for the Senate of the United States and lost (1856).
· He sought the vice-presidential nomination at his party’s national convention, and he received less than 100 votes (1858).
· He ran for U.S. Senate again and again, but he lost (1860).
· He was elected President of the United States (November 6, 1860).
Leader, do not be discouraged. Run the race by God's power for God's glory, and you will win. It’s not a question of “if?” It’s just a matter of “when?”
