Lord's Promise makes failure easier to bear
By Bishop Woodie W. White
Sometimes you just fail. Failure is not a reality welcomed in life, but it comes in all forms and circumstances. One simple definition of failure is, "a state of inability to perform a particular function."
Most of us understandably try to avoid failure. Some failure is serious and results in significant pain and sometimes destruction to oneself or others. Some failure is not so detrimental. It can even be laughable.
I am not mechanically inclined. Or as my engineer brother might say, I am mechanically challenged. In the early days of my marriage I was determined to excel at all the roles I assumed to be those of a good husband. One of those was Mr. Fix It.
I knew my new bride would be impressed with the skills of her preacher husband. But I knew from the outset that mechanical ability was not one of my gifts.
Oh, how I tried. Even the directions provided to assemble some gadget or toy -- or to repair the kitchen sink -- was not only a challenge, it was a mystery! However much I desired the ability to accomplish some mechanical task, simple or complex, it alluded me. I failed miserably. And more humiliating was the ability of my wife to fix anything, with or without directions and instructions.
Failure of this nature, while embarrassing and a blow to the male ego, is not debilitating or emotionally crippling.
There is, I suppose, a hierarchy of failure. Failure on an examination early in the course may not be as serious as failing the final examination.
Then there is Catastrophic or Utter Failure: the inability to achieve a desired noble goal or end. Such failure may lead to a broken heart or relationship. It may result in irreparable damage or in the ending of an association. This is Utter Failure.
Despite our desire to succeed in all things, perhaps we all fail in some things. One is blessed if the failures met in life are not gravely consequential. But when failure comes to the core places of life, it presents an all-engaging challenge. It is failure that touches those character- and soul-forming places. Failure here can be emotionally paralyzing. It can take one to the depths of despair.
Some failure may cause a sense of worthlessness, total inadequacy. A pastor's ministry fails in a particular congregation; a marriage fails in its beginnings or after years of endurance. Some parents conclude they failed, watching a child choose a life of self-destruction. The corporate leader fails and the company suffers great financial loss or is unable to be sustained. Utter failure may come in other ways. Still, it reaches and finds the vulnerable place in us all.
Susan B. Anthony, noted advocate of women's rights, once observed, "Failure is impossible." Perhaps so, but Utter Failure, the failure that touches soul and spirit -- not just ego -- is of a different kind. There are those who know this failure. It is not a respecter of race, class, gender or title.
Many have met this kind of failure and been driven into unbelievable despair. Some have responded in such destructive ways that they added weight to the failure they bore. Such failure brings failure of Spirit.
Here God and faith make the difference. The failure itself does not miraculously disappear. Nor does the pain or the damage cease to exist. But it can and does become a season in life rather than life itself.
The Lord's Promise is to never forsake or abandon us. Indeed the Promise is to share the burden, thus making it lighter to bear. In the course of time, what seemed unbearable and totally defeating, becomes instructive and a resource for the future. We awaken one day and the pain is not as intense, while the loss may remain great. The future is open again for a new chapter in life.
Failure may have found you, but it does not have to defeat or destroy you! This is in some measure the Promise of Faith.
Copyright 2005 United Methodist Reporter. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Retired United Methodist Bishop Woodie W. White currently serves as bishop-in-resident at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Ga.