It’s OK to Fail

A STORY OF FALLING DOWN AND LANDING UP

Failure is not fun, but contrary to popular belief—it IS an option. Since it is, why not learn from them? Let me tell you a story. 

FAILED PLANS

I was 21-years-old and thought I had everything figured out. My dad had another drinking spell where he was refusing to go to treatment. By that time, I lost count of how many times he had relapsed. I planned to drive four and a half hours home from Menomonie and then transport him three hours to the Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in St. Cloud, Minnesota. That way he could get the help he needed. This wasn’t the first time making the trip to the VA. I executed the plan on a beautiful April day. However, my dad ended up passing away during the trip to St. Cloud. My plan failed in a big way, more than I could have imagined. 

Let’s look at another example of failure but this time from the Bible. Saul, a religious leader, was on a mission to Damascus from Jerusalem. He planned to take Christ’s followers as prisoners back to Jerusalem (Acts 9:2). However, Jesus literally stepped in the way on the road to the city of Damascus and prevented him from fulfilling the plan. Read more about it in Acts chapter nine. Saul’s plan failed. 

THE OUTCOME OF SELF-TRUST

The failure of my plan showed that I wasn’t in control. It made me re-evaluate what I was doing in life. It spurred me on to a search ultimately ending in salvation in Jesus. Without the failure, I would never have considered anything wrong with how I was living. God opened my eyes to how I didn’t include Him in the plan. That was before I knew “God’s thoughts are nothing like mine, and His ways are far beyond anything I could imagine.”¹ Can you think back on past failures where something didn’t go the way you planned? Did anything good come from it? Not to say that every failure guarantees good things, but God really does have a plan for everything.²

Saul’s failure also showed him that he wasn’t in control. Jesus opened Saul’s eyes that day to the flaws of his plan. Saul thought he was doing God’s will by persecuting the Christians; however, he wasn’t. If he was, Jesus would not have said, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?”³ So instead of persecuting Christians, he became one. Saul became Paul the Apostle. 

WHOM SHOULD WE TRUST? 

I have heard it said before that no one hurts us more than we hurt ourselves. Now considering the phrase, wouldn’t it be logical to not trust in ourselves? However, the reality is that most of us do. This leaves God out of the equation, resulting in things not adding up. Where should we place our trust? The answer is God. For He is the only One whose, “Works are perfect, and all His ways are just.”⁴ He is the only one we can fully trust, “For no word from God will ever fail.”⁵ I came to salvation in Christ because of the chain reaction set forth by my failed plan. Looking back, I can see how God was working in all of it. Paul could also relate since Jesus interrupted his plans, and it led him to become a believer. The encounter left him blinded and helpless, needing to be led by hand to Damascus. He remained blind there for three days before a believer named Ananias, at God’s command, came and laid hands on him. Afterward, Paul received his sight and the Holy Spirit. 

WORKING THROUGH FAILURES

We will fail again, but with God, there is hope and victory because of Jesus. It doesn’t mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, hungry, destitute, in danger, or threatened with death. In failure we tend to run from God, but He wants us to run towards Him. He isn’t surprised by our failures because He is all-knowing. That is why God sent His son Jesus to die in our place, for our sins, so we can have a relationship with Him. When we fail, we can go to Him, ask for forgiveness, and move on knowing we are covered by the blood of His Son, Jesus. Hang onto passages like, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”²

See, failure is an option. It just isn’t the preferred one. God will teach you about yourself and Him if you allow Him to.  Let the Lord use your failures to shape you to be more like Him. “Come close to God, and God will come close to you,”⁶ and through that, you learn how to be more like Him.

¹ Isaiah 55:8 NLT
² Romans 8:28 NLT 
³ Acts 9:4 NLT 
⁴ Deuteronomy 32:4 NLT 
⁵ Luke 1:37 NLT 
⁶ James 4:8 NLT