The story of Thomas Eddison is an amazing one. It is the story of repeated failure leading to significant success. Where others would have given up, Eddison pressed on - failing time and time again - leading him to declare "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration". Too often whether in relationships, learning, jobs or inventions, people give up far to quickly. If we don't see immediate results, or get 'maximum impact for our buck' we lose focus and the vision of what could be. It is reported that Eddison failed over 900 times in his attempts to invent the light bulb. Over 900 hundred times! Can you imagine attempting and failing at something that many times?
Scripture is filled with examples of people who failed over and over again - how discouraged do you think that Joseph had to be (his life was the "pits"), Moses - wandering around and 'round the desert for 40 years before he heard (he was 80) what God's plan was. An interesting line recorded in Hebrews 12:39 states "All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised" By the worlds standard - failures, every one - [yet] 12:40 God had something better in mind...
If we could change our mindset, toward ourselves and other - recognizing that failure is a vital part of the learning experience. I remember thinking about this when my daughter was learning to walk. She'd pull herself up and at times topple backwards and cry-- repeatedly. Our first impulse was to discourage her from constantly pulling herself up - for fear of her falling and injuring herself, but that is an essential part of development. As parents we needed to make sure that we were throwing pillows around her - and it kept us busier for awhile than putting her in the swing - but after many failures -- Success! (Fortunately learning to drive a car wasn't always crashing:)
Our impulse to circumvent or protect from 'failure' or pain either in ourselves or others, though perhaps laudable, or for the moment easier on ourselves or others - 'what could be' is also prevented. Whether we are children, parents, leaders, support workers, you name it - we need to recognize that failure is a block. We determine what kind of block it is - a building block or a stumbling block. -- what we do with failure determines it nature of holding us back, or increasingly lifting us higher as we pile one failure upon another until we reach success.
The only failure in failure is the failing to learn - and try again -- even if it takes over 900 times!
Prayer: Father as we enter this day, may we give to You all of our failings. Mold them, and re-create them into usable building blocks in our lives. Give us boldness and courage to continue on through our failures as You lead us to Your success in our lives. May we create room and the gentlenss for others to fail around us, and give us the wisdom and discern to know when and how to intervene. Amen
Neil
If you have any comments or thoughts on this or other blog postings, please enter the discussions as we learn to grow in Him together.
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