Not me Lord!
Philip Yancey in his book “Where is God when it hurts” Describes what it would be like for us to have a full recollection of our birth experience. He paints a graphic picture with these words. “Your world is dark, safe, secure. You are bathed in warm liquid, cushioned from shock. You do nothing for yourself; you are fed automatically, and a murmuring heartbeat assures you that someone larger than you fills all your needs. Your life consists of simple waiting--you're not sure what to wait for, but any change seems far away and scary. You meet no sharp objects, no pain, no threatening adventures. A fine existence.
One day you feel a tug. The walls are falling in on you. Those soft cushions are now pulsing and beating against you, crushing you downwards. Your body is bent double, your limbs twisted and wrenched. You're falling, upside down. For the first time in your life, you feel pain. You're in a sea of rolling matter. There is more pressure, almost too intense to bear. Your head is squeezed flat, and you are pushed harder, harder into a dark tunnel. Oh, the pain. Noise. More pressure.
You hurt all over. You hear a groaning sound and an awful, sudden fear rushes in on you. It is happening--your world is collapsing. You're sure it's the end. You see a piercing, blinding light. Cold, rough hands pull at you. A painful slap. Waaahhhh! Congratulations, you have just been born.”
In all of our human existence, the nine months that a child spends in the mother’s womb are the most secured and hassle free moments of its life. God has designed the human body in such a way that we are brought into this world just at the right time. In one sense God squeeze us out of our comfort zone to bring us into this harsh world, where we will encounter pain and difficulties for the rest of our life. As comfortable as it is for a child to be in its mother’s womb, that is not the place where it is meant to be all its life. To experience life it has to give up its secured, comfortable surrounding and come into a world that is unknown and difficult.
God squeezes us out of our comfort zone for our own good, and what is true of our physical growth is also true for our spiritual growth. Time and again God shakes up things in our lives to bring us out of our comfort zone. Now what is a comfort zone? In the book, The Dream Giver, Bruce Wilkinson explains, “A comfort zone is our cosy quilt of relationships. It’s the padding of routines that make us feel good. It’s the security fence of acceptable behaviour. It’s the steel mesh of our past successes and failures” In short a place where we are in control. Often God calls us to let go of that control and trust in Him. When we start to think that ‘life is good’ we need to be reminded that ‘God is good’ even when life is difficult.
Moses in his comfort zone
The call of Moses in Exodus 3 is a perfect example of how God urges His people to step out of their comfort zone and go into unchartered waters trusting in Him. To understand Moses’ comfort zone we need to place this chapter in its historical context.
Exodus chapter 1 describes the oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptians who were intimidated by their numbers. (Exodus 1: 9)
Exodus chapter 2 is about the birth of Moses, of how God in His providence not only spared Moses’ life but also brought him up in Pharaoh’s palace. As the story unfolds, although Moses was brought up in the Pharaoh’s palace, he never forgot who he was. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, Moses intervened and killed the Egyptian hiding his body in the sand. The very next day he saw two Hebrews fighting and when he tried to settle their dispute, one of them turned around and asked him “Are you going to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian”. Moses, afraid that his secret was known fled to Midian. Here he married a woman by the name of Zipporah and had a son through her. For the next forty years Moses looked after his father-in-law’s flock. He had comfortably settled into the role of a husband, a father and a shepherd. His previous life as an Egyptian prince was a distant memory now, but soon all that was going to change.
In Exodus 3 God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and told him, that He had heard the cry of the Israelites and had now come to rescue them. Moses may have been thrilled when he heard this. Finally, after all those years, God was going to intervene and rescue His people. So far so good; but what God said next must have knocked the day lights out of Moses. In Ex. 3: 10 God says to Moses, “So now, go I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt”. Moses’ first thought may have been ‘why me? I am happy with my life, why would I go to a place from where I escaped as a fugitive? In chapter 4:10 Moses expresses this out loud, when he says to God “O Lord, please send someone else to do it”.
So often we like Moses refuse to move beyond our comfort zone, hoping that God will call someone else to step out. We are excited when we see God at work, but we would rather be a spectator than a participant in God’s kingdom. Although Moses gave excuses after excuses for not going, God did not give up on him, but worked through each and every one of the excuses, and finally convinced Moses to step out in faith. As we see how God dealt with Moses there are three principles that we need to remember when God squeezes us out of our comfort zone.
When God sends — He sustains
Moses’ first excuse was his own sense of inadequacy, in Ex. 3: 11 Moses says to God “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” In response to this God says to Moses “I will be with you…” (Ex. 3:12) What God was essentially doing was, shifting Moses’ attention from his own inadequacy to God’s sufficiency. In other words God was telling Moses, that the success of his mission depended not in his ability but on God’s sovereignty.
In fact it is interesting to observe how God explained the strategy for His rescue mission. In Ex. 3: 7 God says to Moses “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians …” Notice, God says “ I have seen…I have heard…I am concerned…So I have come down…” The work of liberation was God’s work and not Moses’. Moses was an instrument in God’s Hand, but God alone was the redeemer. The task at hand can be accomplished only because God is at work. In promising to be with Moses God was assuring him that he would not lack anything. God would sustain him all through the way. God’s sustaining power can be clearly seen in the way He cared for them as they wandered in the desert for forty years. Years later as Nehemiah, praised God for His sustaining power he said this, “For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing…” (Nehemiah 9:21)
When God calls us for a task we can be sure that God will sustain us. Hudson Taylor, the great pioneer missionary to China, once commented that God's work done, in God's way will never lack God's provision. This does not mean that there will never be problems or that we won’t have to face any difficulties, but what it does mean is that God will never leave us nor forsake us. Moses had to face a lot of difficulties as he confronted Pharaoh and later on as he led the people of Israel out of Egypt, but through it all he always found God next to him.
The well known poem entitled ‘Footprints in the sand’ beautifully captures this truth. It describes a dream where a person sees, two sets of footprints, one that belongs to him and the other to the Lord. And as he looks at his life he sees that in the most difficult times there was only one set of footprints. So he turns to God and asks Him “Why is it that during the most difficult and trying times, I can see only one set of footprints, why did you leave me when I needed you the most?” God answers “My precious child. I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you saw only one set of footprints... That was when I carried you." If we were to look at our own lives we would recognize, how often God has carried us through the difficult times. Moses testified to this, years later in Deut. 1:31, as the Israelites were about to enter the promised land, where he says “…the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
If God is asking you to step out in faith, remember He will be with you every step of the way. Through the good times and bad times His faithfulness remains unchanged. As He promised through the prophet Isaiah, “When you walk through the waters I will be with you…” So step out, with the assurance that where God sends you, He will sustain you.
When God enlist — He empowers.
Though God promised to be with him, Moses was still not sure if he could do what God was asking him to do. He came up with another excuse. In Ex. 4:10 he says “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue” Now this was not entirely true. Acts 7:22 says that earlier in his life, during his days as a Prince of Egypt, he was "...educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action." But that was half a life-time ago – according to Moses the "golden years" of his life. Now he saw himself just an old shepherd. His current skills in public speaking were limited to the words and sounds that were used to motivate sheep-not people-not a nation-not a pharaoh! God’s answer to this was a strong rebuttal. In verse 11 God says to Moses “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? What God was really saying to Moses, was “Moses don’t tell me what you can do and what you can’t do, I know you better that you know yourself. So trust me”
Forty years ago, Moses had tried to liberate the people of Israel trusting in his own strength. Now God was telling him, “This time, trust me. You tried it your way, now do it my way, in my strength.” Now, how did God empower Moses? He asked him what was in his hand (Ex 4:1) and Moses replied a staff. Little did Moses know about the power his simple staff would yield when it became the rod of God? The staff was a symbol of God’s power to both the Israelites and the Egyptians. When Pharaoh refused to let the people go, God sent Moses to him with these words “By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.” (Ex 7:17) When the Israelites stood before the Red sea with the Egyptian army in their pursuit, God told Moses “…lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…” (Ex. 14:15) When God enlisted Moses for His mission, He also made sure that He empowered him to fulfil that mission.
God will not call us to do something for which, His power is not sufficient. There is story of Billy Graham, who was holding some of his early crusades in England. As the altar call was given after Billy Graham had preached, the choir would sing "Just As I Am," and the people would walk down the bleachers to make their commitment. The next day the press said, “Billy Graham had used music to manipulate the masses." The following night Billy Graham decided not to use music. At the alter call He simply said, "You just come forward without music." All you could hear were the bleachers creaking as the people went forward. This went on for days. There was no music, yet people in hundreds and thousands would come forward to commit their life to God. After some days the same reporter who had written, that music was being used to emotionally manipulate the crowd, wrote in his article “Please give us the music, the silence is deafening”. You see the crowds did not respond because they were being emotionally manipulated, but because God’s power was at work. God has promised in His word saying “ Its not by might, not by power but by my spirit …” (Zec.4:6) When we do what God asks us to do, we can be rest assured that the task ahead of us is not greater than the power that is behind us. We can do all things through Him who strengths us. Even leave our comfort zone and move into uncharted waters.
When God assigns – He amazes.
An anonymous writer once wrote these words:
I am not sent a pilgrim here, my heart with earth to fill;
But I am here God's grace to learn, and serve God's sovereign will.
He leads me on through smiles and tears, grief follows gladness still;
But let me welcome both alike, since both work out His will.
No service in itself is small, none great, though earth it fill;
But that is small that seeks its own, and great that seeks God's will.
Then hold my hand, most gracious Lord, guide all my doings still;
And let this be my life’s one aim, to do, or bear thy will.
There are times when God calls us to do His will and then there are times when we have to bear His will” In either case, when His will is done it will amaze us, how God can transform our trials into triumphs. In Gen. 50:20 Joseph says to his brother who had sold him into slavery “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” The Bible teaches us that our limitations do not handicap God’s plan and purpose. On the contrary often it is our limitations that enable God to work His glory in and through us.
One of the books that I read which has had a very deep impact on my life is the true story of a girl named Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni was left quadriplegic after a diving accident in 1967 when she was just 17 years old. Initially she believed that God would heal her, but as days went by and this did not happen, her belief turned into despair and she began to contemplate committing suicide. Being a quadriplegic she could not even take her own life. One night having reached the end of the rope she cried out to God and said “God, if I can't die, then please show me how to live.” Her prayer changed things dramatically in the long run. God did not heal her, but gave her a purpose to live. Today Joni is the founder of a ministry called ‘Joni and friends’ that ministers to people with physical disabilities. She has authored 30 books, is a world renowned speaker, and has learnt to paint by holding the brush in her mouth. In an interview on the BBC she once said “I would rather be in this wheelchair knowing Him the way I do than be on my feet without Him”
At the age of 17 God pushed Joni out of her comfort zone, and amazed not just her but the whole world to see what God can accomplish through a life that is surrendered to His purposes. At the beginning of Ex. 3 we meet Moses as a whiner, complaining about his own inadequacy, but at the end of his life the scriptures testify to his life with these words. “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequalled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt…” (Deut. 34: 10-11). What a testimony! Moses would have missed the greatest adventure of his life, had he refused to obey God. When we fulfil what God has assigns us to do, it will amaze us what God can accomplish through us.
Adventure with God
John Wesley once said, “Man’s greatest discovery is to know God’s will, and his greatest adventure is to do God’s will”. Embarking on an adventure means taking risks, going in the unknown way. One cannot be in his/her own comfort zone and experience the thrill of an adventure.
What comfort zone is God asking you to move out of? It may be in the area of finance, where God is asking you to trust in His provision, or may be in the area of relationships where God is asking you to let go. No matter what God is asking you to do, remember when He commands, He also sustains, empowers and amazes you for His glory. So that at the end of the day, we too, like Paul can boldly affirm, “Not that we are competent of our selves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God” (2 Cor.2: 5-6)
-Rev. Paras Tayade.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
REDEEMING FAILURE
REDEEMING FAILURE
A man walks into the psychiatrist’s office and says to the psychiatrist, “Doctor I think I am suffering from an inferiority complex.” So the psychiatrist takes him through a whole battery of testing. The next week the doctor gives the troubled man the results.” I have both good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you do not suffer from an inferiority complex”, said the psychiatrist. “The bad news is that truly you are inferior.”
All of us have experienced failure at some point or the other. The fact is that all of us fail in our lives and all of us have got ways of dealing with it. Some of us live by the motto "if at first you don't succeed destroy all evidence that you tried." Failure-we hide, deny, fear, ignore, take it personally or hate it. We do everything but accept it but that doesn’t change the fact that we fail.
We can be thankful that Scripture deals openly with failure. The defects of the saints are not edited out. The dark sides of people who made a difference in their generation are there for all to see: King David’s adultery and murderous scheming, Elijah’s loss of nerve, Jonah’s vindictive spirit. In fact the lives of these people provide us with a clue about how God deals with failure. Time and again God took broken, messed up and utter failures and used them for His glory.
It is also true that not all failures that we see in the Bible had glorious endings. While people such as Moses, Abraham, David, Jonah and Simon Peter seem to have turned their failures into great transforming moments, others like Lot, Ahab, and Judas Iscariot seem never to have recovered. What was the difference? There are three principles that we can draw, as we look at the lives of those who failed and yet by God’s grace have come out of it triumphantly.
Failure does not diminish God’s love.
Failure, first and foremost, affects our sense of worth. We live in a success driven world, where anything less than success is worthless. It is not surprising that our society which advocates this kind of philosophy, witnesses a generation that is willing to end its life at the remotest possibility of failure. Every year when school / college results are declared, the newspaper is full of stories of students who commit suicide because they could not do well in their exams. In a society that worships success, failure is often met with repugnance. No one wants to associate with a failure.
How different is the God we encounter in the Bible. Paul wrote about God’s love in Romans 5:18 saying “…yet while we were sinners Christ died for us.” You see, God’s love for us is not based on our performance. There is nothing that we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing that we can do to make God love us less. Paul was so sure of God’s unfailing love that in Romans 8:38-39, he says “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Translate this in our every day life and we could read this as “ Neither failure nor poor church attendance, nor inadequate Bible reading and prayer, nor betrayal, denial doubt, insecurity, guilt, weakness, nor even losing our temper can separate us from the love of God.” He just keeps loving us.
It is true that when we sin, we break God’s heart but that never makes God’s heart grow cold towards us. When Adam and Eve sinned against God they were banished from the Garden of Eden but not abandoned by God. Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son highlight this truth that no one, no matter how insignificant or small or useless they may be, is written off in God’s economy. Each of these parables ends with Jesus telling His disciples that there will be great rejoicing over one sinner who repents. Henri Nouwen once said “God rejoices. Not because the problems of the world have been solved, not because all human pain and suffering have come to an end, nor because thousands of people have been converted and are now praising Him for his goodness. No, God rejoices because one of His children who was lost has been found.”
Isn’t it comforting to know that our Heavenly Father loves us just as we are? Though we have failed Him and disappointed Him, when we turn to Him in repentance we encounter grace upon grace. In John 21 we read that after Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared to the disciples and what is fascinating in this passage, is Jesus’ question to Peter. He asked, “Peter do you love me?” I think it should have been Peter asking this question. “Lord, do you love me, after I denied you and deserted you at the time you needed me the most?” But the fact that it is Jesus and not Peter asking this question tells us that Peter was already forgiven and was now given a second chance.
No matter what our failure is, when we turn to God in true repentance we are always given a second chance. In Christ we are a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come.
Failure is not Final
William J. Gaither in one of his best known hymns wrote. “Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.” God in His sovereignty is able to take even our failures and transform them into something good. Paul in Romans 8:28 says “…in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.” Notice he says ‘all things’ which means even our failures and our blunders can be used for the good as we surrender them to God. In God’s economy failure is not final.
Consider Moses, who encountered failure when he impulsively killed an Egyptian. Though Moses understood his calling to deliver the people of Israel [Acts 7:25], he misunderstood God’s way of doing things. After killing the Egyptian, Moses ran away. One would think that’s the end of the story, but no; God was still at work. The next forty years in the wilderness served as a training ground for preparing Moses for the task that lay ahead. D.L. Moody once said of Moses, “he spent the first 40 years thinking he was a somebody, the next 40 years learning he was a nobody then the last 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”
When we go through failures, we may think it is the end of the road but in God’s providence that may be just the beginning of a great task ahead. As long as we live in this fallen world we will go through failures. The best way to deal with failure is, not to dwell on our past mistakes, but to trust in God and move ahead. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13 “…Forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what is ahead”. John Chrysostom the early church father once said “The danger is not that we should fall…but that we should remain on the ground.”
The Bible tells us in I Corinthians 1:27 “God chose what is foolish…to shame the wise; God chose what is weak…to shame the strong”. Our failure rather than being an obstruction between us and God may be the very thing that pushes us towards Him, for our failure forces us to face the fact that we are not self-sufficient. The only way we can live a victorious life is when we trust in His grace and not in our strength.
Don’t let failure overwhelm you, but see the bigger picture through God’s perspective. And you will realize that failure is, but a stepping stone for success. Winston Churchill has rightly said “Success is never final; failure is never fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
Failure can be transformed.
Once upon a time there was a king who had a beautiful diamond in his possession. Once a year he would put that diamond on display for the general public to come and see. Men and women from all over the place would flock to see this rare beauty. As time approached for the diamond to be displayed, the king ordered that it be polished and put in its special case. Unfortunately the jeweller, who handled the diamond, was careless and as a result the diamond developed a big scar as it was being polished. This scar completely marred the beauty of the diamond.
The king was very upset that his prized possession was ruined. He sent word throughout the land that if there was any one who could fix the scar, he would be given a big reward. Many jewellers and diamond experts came and examined the diamond but there was nothing they could do to erase the scar from it. Finally, an old man walked into the king’s court and said that he would be able to fix the problem but for that he would have to take the diamond and would return it only after a week. The king was reluctant but having no other option he gave the diamond to the old man.
The old man took the diamond and returned after a week. He then presented the diamond to the king, and the king noticed that the old man had carved a beautiful rose on the diamond, using the scar as the stem of the rose. This made the diamond look even more beautiful than it was previously. The very scar that once blemished the good look of the diamond now, as the stem of the rose, enhanced its beauty. God, in his sovereignty, is able to use the very scars of failures and transform them into something beautiful. Failure can be transformed — look at people like Moses, David, Paul and Peter and you will see how God worked in and through flawed human beings. And the good news is He still does. John Newton the slave trader whom God transformed into a hymn writer. Charles Colson, who served President Richard Nixon and was, put into prison for his involvement in the Watergate scandal, encountered Jesus Christ while in prison and his life took a complete turn. Today, he leads an international ministry called the Prison fellowship which reaches out to prison inmates with the love of Christ.
God said through the prophet Isaiah “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.” [Isa. 1:18] Our failure, when surrendered before God is but a tool in His hand to shape us and mould us for His glory.
A New Vision
In Matthew 25: 14-30, Jesus told a parable of a man who goes on journey and as he leaves he entrusts his property to his servants. To the first, he gives five talents, to the second, he gives two talents and to the third, he gives one talent, to each according to his ability. After a long time when their master returns he finds that the first and the second servant had doubled what had been given to them where as the third servant had hidden his talent and still had only one. The master rewards the first two, for their work while the third one is punished for his laziness; for not putting to good use what was given to him. Notice, the master does not commend the first two because they were successful in work nor does he rebuke the third servant because he had failed rather the point that Jesus was making through this parable was that at the end of the day what really matters is how faithful we are, to what we have been entrusted with, and not whether we succeed or fail.
When Charleston Heston was training to drive the chariot for Ben-hur, he said to Cecil B. Demill, the director of the movie, “I can barely stay on this thing. I can’t win the race” De Mille replied, “Your job is to stay on it. It’s my job to make sure you win”. That is what God says to us— that we need to be faithful to what He has entrusted us with, and God will take us to the finish line and declare victory. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” As long as we live on, this side of eternity we will continue to experience failures, but we need to move ahead trusting in God’s promises and provisions, knowing that His grace is all sufficient for our lives.
- Rev. Paras Tayade
A man walks into the psychiatrist’s office and says to the psychiatrist, “Doctor I think I am suffering from an inferiority complex.” So the psychiatrist takes him through a whole battery of testing. The next week the doctor gives the troubled man the results.” I have both good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you do not suffer from an inferiority complex”, said the psychiatrist. “The bad news is that truly you are inferior.”
All of us have experienced failure at some point or the other. The fact is that all of us fail in our lives and all of us have got ways of dealing with it. Some of us live by the motto "if at first you don't succeed destroy all evidence that you tried." Failure-we hide, deny, fear, ignore, take it personally or hate it. We do everything but accept it but that doesn’t change the fact that we fail.
We can be thankful that Scripture deals openly with failure. The defects of the saints are not edited out. The dark sides of people who made a difference in their generation are there for all to see: King David’s adultery and murderous scheming, Elijah’s loss of nerve, Jonah’s vindictive spirit. In fact the lives of these people provide us with a clue about how God deals with failure. Time and again God took broken, messed up and utter failures and used them for His glory.
It is also true that not all failures that we see in the Bible had glorious endings. While people such as Moses, Abraham, David, Jonah and Simon Peter seem to have turned their failures into great transforming moments, others like Lot, Ahab, and Judas Iscariot seem never to have recovered. What was the difference? There are three principles that we can draw, as we look at the lives of those who failed and yet by God’s grace have come out of it triumphantly.
Failure does not diminish God’s love.
Failure, first and foremost, affects our sense of worth. We live in a success driven world, where anything less than success is worthless. It is not surprising that our society which advocates this kind of philosophy, witnesses a generation that is willing to end its life at the remotest possibility of failure. Every year when school / college results are declared, the newspaper is full of stories of students who commit suicide because they could not do well in their exams. In a society that worships success, failure is often met with repugnance. No one wants to associate with a failure.
How different is the God we encounter in the Bible. Paul wrote about God’s love in Romans 5:18 saying “…yet while we were sinners Christ died for us.” You see, God’s love for us is not based on our performance. There is nothing that we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing that we can do to make God love us less. Paul was so sure of God’s unfailing love that in Romans 8:38-39, he says “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Translate this in our every day life and we could read this as “ Neither failure nor poor church attendance, nor inadequate Bible reading and prayer, nor betrayal, denial doubt, insecurity, guilt, weakness, nor even losing our temper can separate us from the love of God.” He just keeps loving us.
It is true that when we sin, we break God’s heart but that never makes God’s heart grow cold towards us. When Adam and Eve sinned against God they were banished from the Garden of Eden but not abandoned by God. Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son highlight this truth that no one, no matter how insignificant or small or useless they may be, is written off in God’s economy. Each of these parables ends with Jesus telling His disciples that there will be great rejoicing over one sinner who repents. Henri Nouwen once said “God rejoices. Not because the problems of the world have been solved, not because all human pain and suffering have come to an end, nor because thousands of people have been converted and are now praising Him for his goodness. No, God rejoices because one of His children who was lost has been found.”
Isn’t it comforting to know that our Heavenly Father loves us just as we are? Though we have failed Him and disappointed Him, when we turn to Him in repentance we encounter grace upon grace. In John 21 we read that after Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared to the disciples and what is fascinating in this passage, is Jesus’ question to Peter. He asked, “Peter do you love me?” I think it should have been Peter asking this question. “Lord, do you love me, after I denied you and deserted you at the time you needed me the most?” But the fact that it is Jesus and not Peter asking this question tells us that Peter was already forgiven and was now given a second chance.
No matter what our failure is, when we turn to God in true repentance we are always given a second chance. In Christ we are a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come.
Failure is not Final
William J. Gaither in one of his best known hymns wrote. “Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.” God in His sovereignty is able to take even our failures and transform them into something good. Paul in Romans 8:28 says “…in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.” Notice he says ‘all things’ which means even our failures and our blunders can be used for the good as we surrender them to God. In God’s economy failure is not final.
Consider Moses, who encountered failure when he impulsively killed an Egyptian. Though Moses understood his calling to deliver the people of Israel [Acts 7:25], he misunderstood God’s way of doing things. After killing the Egyptian, Moses ran away. One would think that’s the end of the story, but no; God was still at work. The next forty years in the wilderness served as a training ground for preparing Moses for the task that lay ahead. D.L. Moody once said of Moses, “he spent the first 40 years thinking he was a somebody, the next 40 years learning he was a nobody then the last 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”
When we go through failures, we may think it is the end of the road but in God’s providence that may be just the beginning of a great task ahead. As long as we live in this fallen world we will go through failures. The best way to deal with failure is, not to dwell on our past mistakes, but to trust in God and move ahead. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13 “…Forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what is ahead”. John Chrysostom the early church father once said “The danger is not that we should fall…but that we should remain on the ground.”
The Bible tells us in I Corinthians 1:27 “God chose what is foolish…to shame the wise; God chose what is weak…to shame the strong”. Our failure rather than being an obstruction between us and God may be the very thing that pushes us towards Him, for our failure forces us to face the fact that we are not self-sufficient. The only way we can live a victorious life is when we trust in His grace and not in our strength.
Don’t let failure overwhelm you, but see the bigger picture through God’s perspective. And you will realize that failure is, but a stepping stone for success. Winston Churchill has rightly said “Success is never final; failure is never fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
Failure can be transformed.
Once upon a time there was a king who had a beautiful diamond in his possession. Once a year he would put that diamond on display for the general public to come and see. Men and women from all over the place would flock to see this rare beauty. As time approached for the diamond to be displayed, the king ordered that it be polished and put in its special case. Unfortunately the jeweller, who handled the diamond, was careless and as a result the diamond developed a big scar as it was being polished. This scar completely marred the beauty of the diamond.
The king was very upset that his prized possession was ruined. He sent word throughout the land that if there was any one who could fix the scar, he would be given a big reward. Many jewellers and diamond experts came and examined the diamond but there was nothing they could do to erase the scar from it. Finally, an old man walked into the king’s court and said that he would be able to fix the problem but for that he would have to take the diamond and would return it only after a week. The king was reluctant but having no other option he gave the diamond to the old man.
The old man took the diamond and returned after a week. He then presented the diamond to the king, and the king noticed that the old man had carved a beautiful rose on the diamond, using the scar as the stem of the rose. This made the diamond look even more beautiful than it was previously. The very scar that once blemished the good look of the diamond now, as the stem of the rose, enhanced its beauty. God, in his sovereignty, is able to use the very scars of failures and transform them into something beautiful. Failure can be transformed — look at people like Moses, David, Paul and Peter and you will see how God worked in and through flawed human beings. And the good news is He still does. John Newton the slave trader whom God transformed into a hymn writer. Charles Colson, who served President Richard Nixon and was, put into prison for his involvement in the Watergate scandal, encountered Jesus Christ while in prison and his life took a complete turn. Today, he leads an international ministry called the Prison fellowship which reaches out to prison inmates with the love of Christ.
God said through the prophet Isaiah “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.” [Isa. 1:18] Our failure, when surrendered before God is but a tool in His hand to shape us and mould us for His glory.
A New Vision
In Matthew 25: 14-30, Jesus told a parable of a man who goes on journey and as he leaves he entrusts his property to his servants. To the first, he gives five talents, to the second, he gives two talents and to the third, he gives one talent, to each according to his ability. After a long time when their master returns he finds that the first and the second servant had doubled what had been given to them where as the third servant had hidden his talent and still had only one. The master rewards the first two, for their work while the third one is punished for his laziness; for not putting to good use what was given to him. Notice, the master does not commend the first two because they were successful in work nor does he rebuke the third servant because he had failed rather the point that Jesus was making through this parable was that at the end of the day what really matters is how faithful we are, to what we have been entrusted with, and not whether we succeed or fail.
When Charleston Heston was training to drive the chariot for Ben-hur, he said to Cecil B. Demill, the director of the movie, “I can barely stay on this thing. I can’t win the race” De Mille replied, “Your job is to stay on it. It’s my job to make sure you win”. That is what God says to us— that we need to be faithful to what He has entrusted us with, and God will take us to the finish line and declare victory. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” As long as we live on, this side of eternity we will continue to experience failures, but we need to move ahead trusting in God’s promises and provisions, knowing that His grace is all sufficient for our lives.
- Rev. Paras Tayade
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