Reminders for Your Spiritual Journey

Failure is the concept of not meeting a desired or intended objective and is generally viewed as the opposite of success. There are different types of failure that can be attributed to a given situation. Failure can be because of a simple mistake or misunderstanding.  For example, she thought the appointment was at 10:00 o’clock, not 9:00, and failed to show up on time. Failure might be due to a lack of ability or planning. For example, I thought I could get the cookies baked in time to bring them with me, but I ran out of time. Failure might be due to a lack of opportunity or resources. e.g., He had hoped to go to college, but he did not have enough money to pay the tuition. Another type of failure might be deliberate as in manufactures who design machines to fail in less than ten years so that they can sell more of them sooner.

Whatever the type of failure, it is something we almost always hope to avoid. Failure causes us to feel embarrassed, disillusioned, frustrated, discontent or discouraged. After experiencing several failures in a short period of time, we might start to feel like nothing is going right and we might become despondent or even clinically depressed.  Whether we have caused our own failures or they are caused by forces beyond our control, we might begin to wallow in self-pity or try to blame God or someone or something else for what has happened.

The Bible presents failure not as a final state, but as an opportunity for God’s grace, strength, and redemption to be revealed. While human failure is inevitable, Christians are reassured that God works through mistakes to bring about good.  God offers comfort to the brokenhearted and power through weakness.  As it says in Proverbs 24:16: “The righteous may fall seven times but will rise again”. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that: “God’s strength is perfected in human weakness", meaning that our limitations allow Christ's power to strengthen us. Romans 8:28 promises that “God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose”, including failures. God is close to the brokenhearted and sustains those who feel crushed in spirit, according to Psalm 34:18.

Bible heroes failed often—Peter denied Jesus three times, Matthew 26:69-75, and Abraham lied about his wife in Genesis 12. These stories demonstrate that God can still use flawed people for His purpose. If failure is caused by sin, 1 John 1:9 promises that God is faithful to forgive and cleanse. Philippians 3:13-14 encourages us to focus on the future, letting go of past mistakes and pressing forward and 2 Corinthians 3:5 instructs us to Lean on God’s power rather than our own personal competence.  Deuteronomy 1:29-31 tells us not to be discouraged, but to get back up and continue in faith, knowing that God goes before us. As the hymn says, He goes “with us, with us, all the way”.

Human beings are very adept at self-deception. What’s worse, we are not always aware that we are deceiving ourselves. There are many forms of self-deception. There is willful ignorance where in, we only listen to one side of an issue. There is willful blindness. We might all see the same event but come away with opposite conclusions of what happened or who might have been to blame. That is what is meant by the quote: “In desperate moments people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see.” Mitch Albom in The Little Liar, p154.

 Self-preservation often plays a role in our ability to deceive ourselves. We fear that if we don’t go along with certain ideas or behaviors, our comfortable life might be adversely affected.  We might lose our job or our social standing. We sometimes go along to get along, and we are all good at allowing ourselves to believe something we should know is not true. It helps us face uncertainty. But the Bible warns us not to be deceived, even by our own selfish desires. Jeremiah 17:9 says: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"

Some people in authority are very good at manipulating people into believing that a lie is true.  They use repetition of the lie to wear people down. They use euphemisms, (calling bad, difficult or harmful things “good” by using more acceptable terms.) For example, calling the necessity to grow one’s own food during war time “raising victory gardens”. They use scapegoating to paint certain groups as bad to have someone to blame for all the problems the rest of the people are facing. They also use it to justify treating people badly or even killing them and to get certain people to participate in their evil process. The Bible is clear that using lies to gain power over others is wrong. Propaganda works to get people to do the right thing, like rationing certain things in war time, but it is also used to get people to believe lies and to do terrible things as a result.

Proverbs 26:24-26: Warns us not to believe those who speak charmingly but harbor hate in their hearts.  2 Corinthians 11:13-15: speaks of false apostles masquerading as servants of righteousness.  In Matthew 24: Jesus warns, "Watch out that no one deceives you". 1 Thessalonians 5:21: Advises us to "test all things; hold fast to what is good". 

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” The Week, 3/3/23, p.17.  Comparison is the act of seeing or acknowledging two or more people, objects, or situations and noting how the attributes of each are similar and how they differ. For example, the weather was much warmer yesterday than it is today.  That type of comparison is based on observable facts.

What I believe Teddy Roosevelt might have been talking about is the human tendency to compare ourselves or our situations with other people and making value judgements––better or worse, richer or poorer, fatter or slimmer, stronger or weaker, faster or slower and so on.  When we make such comparisons, we often find either that we or the other person or group has less or more of whatever we consider desirable. We either feel that we and our situations are more or less advantageous. That kind of comparison is often tainted by feelings and opinions. We might either feel envious or hold feelings of superiority. Making value comparisons can indeed rob us of our joy!

James 2:1-5 describes the kind of comparisons we should avoid: “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”

This is not to say that we should never make comparisons. How else are we to know for whom to pray or to whom to show mercy. In the Bible, the dichotomy is set forth as using righteous rather than unrighteous judgements. In plain language, we need to think, speak and act out of love. Treating others fairly and without judgment is fulfilling the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" James 2:8. For Christians, Jesus is the primary model for this, as He set aside His own rights as the son of God to serve others. 

Scripture repeatedly states that God shows no partiality or favoritism. Believers are commanded not to pervert justice by favoring the rich or deferring to the great, nor should they be biased in favor of the poor. Jesus taught that the entire Law and the Prophets are summed up in the principle of treating others as you wish to be treated. (Matthew7:12) This standard challenges us to consider the needs and feelings of others before acting. “So Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I understand that God shows no partiality.” Acts 10:3, and neither should we.