By Not Known
Mike Markula, a former vice-chairman of Apple Computer once said, “I believe the overall quality of work improves when you give people a chance to fail.“
Among the most vocal and most visible apostles of Jesus was a man named Peter, whose name meant the rock. It meant strength and stability. It meant solid foundation, unshakable. Yet he was one who failed Jesus not once but three times. He denied Jesus intensely and vehemently.
Another rock solid apostle by the name of Paul was also involved in failures. He failed to know the true God and persecuted His followers. He also failed in his relationship with Barnabas and brought about the problem with his intense opinion of John Mark.
God restored both Peter and Paul.
I have been reminded again and again: “Success does not bread success, it breeds failure. It is failure that breeds success.” If this advice seems blatantly absurd, examine the so-called failures in life. Take a long hard look at the lives of the apostles.
Many of us might have heard of the famous baseball player named Pete Rose. At precisely 8:01pm on 11 September 1985, Pete smacked his 4,192nd career hit. It surpassed the previous record holder and entered into the record books. But many didn’t know that he also held another record: most outs – 9,518 of them
Many had accused Paul of many things, but one of the most unacceptable was the one that said, “He preached another gospel.” Yes, he had persecuted the Christians; he had hurled many of them in prisons and he had done many wrong things in his life including denying the reality of Christ. But God changed him and he learnt from his failures and he had since always preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, no addition and no subtraction.
We live in an age that prided instant success more than anything else. Failure is often not acceptable. But if we had failed to be punctual for worship service, learn from it and change it. If we had failed to spend intimate and meaningful time with God, learn from it and seek God personally and intentionally. If we failed to understand why bad things happen to good people, learn from God’s word and understand the way He works.
If we hadn’t failed, we hadn’t learnt. And if we fail to learn, we fail to grow. Let’s work at our growth through learning from our failures.