Have you decided to join my Failure Team?
No, I didn’t say Fitness Team.
You read correctly – I’m starting a FAILURE team.

I started promoting it a couple weeks ago in my post A Plan To Fail – Part 1

Space is limited, so you need to act fast if you want in…
I can only handle so many failures at a time.

Oh, and did I mention you can join free of charge?! That’s right people, I’ll teach you how to fail for FREE!
That’s how charitable I am.

Man, I’m excited to be your Failure Coach!
I’m really gifted in this area!
And, if ever I think I’m losing my failing edge I just look to my husband for inspiration because he’s really good at it too.
We make a great team.
In fact, we should just call it our ministry…

I’m totally kidding!

… well, mostly.

I am not a failure, neither is my husband. Nor do I want to start a Failure Team!
But, indeed, I have failed more than a few times in my life.

Some of my failures, I’m not very proud of. They were demoralizing, destructive, and hurt others in the process.
Other failures weren’t necessarily from any fault of my own, and they have their own kind of sorrow.

But, another category of failure exists…
one that excites me,
one that challenges me,
one that I want to embrace.
In fact, this kind of failure does make me want to form a team!

I mean, come on!
Who wouldn’t want to sit in a Failure Support Group with the likes of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton, and Steven Spielberg?!

These guys were all considered failures at one time or another, some of them for much of their lives!

But they weren’t failures.
Oh, yes, they failed alright.

But, as Thomas Edison defended,

“I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work!”

 

And, I love the wisdom of Albert Einstein,

“If you’ve never failed, you’ve never tried anything new.”

 

And in case we think that quotable quotes only come from dead guys,
here’s a good one from modern-day failure, Michael Jordan:

“The key to success is failure.”

 

Failure.
It’s how normal people, like you and I –
and Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Noah, and Moses –
end up doing extraordinary things.
“Um, excuse me?…You call these people normal?”, I hear you questioning.
OK, maybe ‘normal’ isn’t exactly the right word when comparing ourselves to these GREATS…

But they are normal in the sense that they were made of flesh and bone,
mind and spirit, with God-given abilities and talents, just like us.
They simply chose to do something with all of it.
And they were willing to risk failing.

Fail they did.
Then they reevaluated, rethought, revised their plan, and tried again.
And failed… again.
Cue repeating cycle.

Then one day –
BOOM! –
it happened.
Something clicked. Something worked. Something succeeded!
Then. They died.
(Sorry, it’s all part of the cycle… nobody gets to revel in their glory for too long)

Failure in THIS category isn’t failure at all!

We need more failures in our generation.

We need more people to dream and plan and try… and fail.
We need more people to re-evaluate, re-think, re-imagine, and re-try.
And when they fail, try again – people willing to repeat the cycle.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Henry Ford

Our greatest failures in life aren’t when we attempt something and don’t succeed.

Real failure is when we’re content doing nothing, and call it success.

Sure, if we never risk failure then we’ll never have to hear the scoffing of naysayers.
We’ll never have to admit we were wrong.
We’ll never have to see our plan unravel.
We’ll never have to feel the sting of others’ success in the midst of our failure.

But.
We’ll also never experience the miracle of the impossible.
We’ll never see the parting of waters.
We’ll never know a faith that moves mountains.
We’ll never experience the exhilaration of success.

I don’t know about you,
but I want to experience at least one of the things in the latter of those two lists –
even if it means enduring all of the things in the former.
Are you with me?

If so, then before we hastily strap on our boots and begin chasing our dreams,
let me close with one word of caution.

I’m going to give this warning in my best southern accent,
so as to make it more endearing and less offensive…

If God ain’t callin’ you to part the Red Sea,
well then – by golly – yer just gonna drown!

We have to be cautious of our enthusiasm and excitement,
even when – especially when – our dreams are ‘to do big things for God’.
If wrong motives are what fuel our dreams, goals, and ambitions
then they could all end in the kind of demoralizing and destructive failure we don’t want.

True success, for the Christian, isn’t about what we do or where we go,
how much we give or accomplish.
It’s not even about how many lives we impact.
It’s about One thing.

Knowing Jesus.
As we try to know Him better, we will fail.
As we try to accomplish His will, we will fail.
As we try to fulfill His commands, we will fail.
As we try to discern His voice, we will fail.
As we try to demonstrate His love, we will fail.

But, if every time we fail we get back up again,
dust the dirt from our knees, lay down our pride,
and beg God for more of Himself,
then we are not failures.

We are a success-story in the making!

Though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin.
Proverbs 24:16