Failure

At the age of 60, I look back at many many failures:

* Failed business ventures

* Failed investments

* Failed ministry ideas

* Failed relationships

* Etc.

Failure keeps us humble! Helps us to focus on the Lord!

I’d agree that failure keeps us humble. In my life, failure has also left me open to other opportunities. Then there are the times that I just had to accept the failure and realize that either I had a lesson God needed to teach me, or that in some unknown way I was being used to teach someone else. My most significant failure over the last year was having a bad student teaching placement and needing to ask for a different assignment. I had a long wait (nearly three months, half a semester) during this time, but I eventually received an ideal student teaching placement and reignited my passion for teaching. I am currently seeking a job - any kind of education related job - and honestly, I don’t know if that initial failed placement is haunting me somehow. Again, I have to trust that I will eventually get the right job to benefit the right students whom I should be influencing.

We often are tempted to measure ministry “success” by the world’s standards: Numbers, finances, buildings, etc.

[url] http://www.clcbc.com/media/audio/SSArchive/Dr%20Erwin%20Lutzer%20-%20Li… an excellent message on this topic by Dr. Erwin Lutzer. A friend who is struggling in his pastorate referred me to it. Some good quotes:

“The desert is the place where roots go down deeply.”

“You know what God is doing? He’s chipping away everything that is not Jesus, and He’s using circumstances and obnoxious people to do it.”

“It’s not a penalty box; it’s a bull pen.”

Failure is purposeful. I think that is so important to remember.