Failure 101

Oops. Uh oh. My bad.

We goof up - it's a fact. I did this morning, in front of the whole congregation. It wasn't like my pants fell off or anything, but I just said the wrong thing at the wrong time. It made it worse that beforehand, I kept thinking "don't screw up!". Maybe I put more pressure on myself - who knows. But I'd like to give you my top 5 reasons why failure is GOOD:

1) It keeps us humble. Looking dumb in front of a crowd, a group of peers, or even a couple friends can really put that ego back in check.

2)It teaches us something. The best thing you can do when you fail is afterwards, ask "ok, why didn't that work?". Evaluation of the "misses" can help you grow a lot more than reveling in those "hits".

3)It can teach you to trust others. Sometimes failure occurs when we think we can do it all by ourselves. But instead of pulling an Atlas (you know, that Greek god with the world on his shoulders?), we would accomplish so much more if we asked someone for help. There's no "i" in "teamwork" (however, there is a "me", but that sort of works against my point - let's move on).

4)It should encourage us to keep going. There's a great Nike commercial that I love where Michael Jordan is talking and he says:

“I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Wow. If Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time could, say miss a dunk on a break-away in an all-star game (go Wizards. Ouch), then I guess all of us are bound to make mistakes sometimes. But goofing up should encourage us to try even harder next time, not be discouraged. Read reason #2 again (seriously).

5)It *can get us closer to God. Note that little * by can; that's because it's our choice. But I tell ya, when you hit rock bottom, that's when it's easiest to cry out to God. When you feel completely demoralized and discouraged, what better time is there to ask God for some help? Sometimes falling flat on our face is the only way God can get our attention.