Flourishing Failure 

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5  

As mentioned in my blog from Monday, I was unsuccessful in a job interview last week. It was the furthest I got out of more than a dozen applications sent out before Christmas, so I was really hopeful, but it was not to be. And for good reason! I simply did not have the technical experience they needed to fill that specific role.

But no matter how I tried to rationalise it, it still stung to be unsuccessful. I’m sure you can relate. We try stuff, doing our best, and working hard to get to the next stage, but sometimes our best just isn’t good enough.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised that we will, in our lives, experience more disappointment than success. Think about it. Out of the thousands of athletes trying to compete in the Olympics 100-meter event, for instance, only eight will run in the final, of which only three will stand on a podium, of which only one will be remembered as the winner. One out of thousands…
Or one contestant winning Britain’s Got Talent out of thousands of entrants. Or one child getting Star Of The Day out of a whole classroom full of kids. Or unexpectedly losing the World Cup final against the underdogs.

Does this mean that there are only a handful of people/teams who are ever successful in life? I suppose it depends on how you define success. In my view? No, it does not. Real success in a life full of inevitable disappointments is to try again, and again, and again. As Winston Churchill put it: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Even in a Christian context, we are not immune to experiencing disappointment. We feel the grief of losing a loved one. We fail at job interviews. We’re forced to deal with financial difficulties. We experience unrequited love. You can probably think of a thousand more examples of disappointment in your own life.

And yet, Paul says we are “more than conquerors through [Christ] who loved us.” (Romans 8:37). You see, success is not so much about the result of our efforts, but that we are loved in spite of our best efforts. If you want to be successful, be loved. And the good news is that you already are loved by the One who gave his life for you, who overcame the world. Whatever disappointment you are facing today, may you rest in the knowledge that God unreservedly and unconditionally loves you. And may that spur you on to try again.

A prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your act of love upon the cross. Thank you that I, too, am loved as I am. Help me to love others as you have loved me, regardless of my circumstances, because that is what you have done for me. Amen.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash