Fear, Failure, and Success

I recently just read the following quote:


“In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail.”

I think that most pithy statements have their limitations, but this one is definitely a head-nodder. Our willingness to fail is going to, by some measure, determine our willingness to stretch ourselves - to do things we’ve never done - to become things that we know we need to become - to do things that must be done.

Too much of the time we settle for what is decent and good, when we could have achieved what is better and far more effective. However, our passion becomes dormant by fear. It’s not necessarily that we primarily fear that we or someone else will get hurt, or that it won’t be as effective as we might envision, or that it won’t be received well by people for what we are doing, or that it’s not a good idea overall. Rather, we fear that we will fail. We define ourselves by what we do, and if we fail, then we must be a failure, and we don’t want to come to grips with that possibility. We don’t want to feel like a failure. We don’t want to feel like less of a person than what we feel right now. Maybe we’re on a plateau. Things are going great, and we don’t want this feeling of greatness to go away. Or maybe we’re threatening to hit rock bottom and we don’t want to do anything that will take us any lower than we already are. Maybe it’s just that we are overall just an insecure person portraying our insecurity through either perfectionism or absenteeism. In any case, we are defining ourselves by what we do, and this is a huge problem. Why? Because this is why Jesus came. This kind of fear threatens the work that the Gospel is meant to do in our lives.

The passion that we express throughout our lives is a good indicator as to where our faith is at. Both what we’re putting it in and how much of it we have. Many of us have poor faith in God, and that is why we don’t stick our necks out. We don’t believe God is going to give good things to His loved ones like He promised. Many of us put our faith in ourselves, and that is why we do nothing, because we know the one we are relying on isn’t a very respectable or powerful person. What we need is a change of mind.

Not a change of mind that makes us think much of ourselves, but rather a change of mind that makes us think much of God. And thinking much of God makes us think less of ourselves, and that which we do think of ourselves is proper. We think of ourselves as God thinks of us – powerless – but chosen and loved. We are Redeemed, Forgiven, Justified, Recipients of grace, and Heirs of the Kingdom. All of which makes us think even more of God and less of ourselves. God’s saving grace saves us not only from our flesh and damnation, but also of daily discouragement and depression that is inevitable without either a Christ-life or a false (uplifted) view of self. Though it is true that we are weak, that means nothing in light of Christ in you, the hope of glory, the power to save, and the power to become the children of God and perform His will in imitating Christ and carrying a great message of redemption to our nation through word and deed.

I was just reading last night in Francis Chan’s book, “Forgotten God” about the Holy Spirit. He made a good point when he said something to the effect of “Do we really believe that the same Holy Spirit that lives in us and works through us is the same Spirit Who had the power to raise Christ from the dead?”

I think he is on to something. Do we really believe that the Holy Spirit has the power that the Bible tells us He does? Do we really believe that He is part of our daily life like the Bible tells us He is? If the answer to both these questions is “yes,” then we have nothing to fear. We have no reason to hold back because we have no power. Why? Because we are confident in the power that God works so willingly in and through us. If the Holy Spirit can raise the dead, heal the sick, and bring souls, even atheists, to the saving knowledge of Christ, and bring a bunch of nobodies like Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David, Peter, and Saul (Paul) to be some of the most influential personages in the history of Christianity, He can certainly help us be the people we know we should be and do the things we know we should do. We can proclaim God’s redemption with boldness. We can do our work in our workplace with confidence that it is worth something to God and He can make it bare whatever fruit He wants it to. We can build the Christ-like character that we know God wants us to have. We can be the mother, father, husband, or wife that God wants us to be. We can go out and serve our community knowing that our works are not in vain, though we are but a speck. The Spirit works effectually in and through us, and we need not hold back in fear that we will just be wasting our time and efforts because of our frailty and impotence. Doesn’t God choose the weak to lead the strong? We don’t have to expect that we have to change the world. God will. And He will use us however He chooses, and He will make our efforts come together for good to those who love Him, and who are the called, according to His purposes. Stop being so self-absorbed and believe that God is who He says He is and that He really does know you and use you. If you’re going to succeed, you have to be willing to be a failure, and then get up and move on to more grace-driven, Christ-magnifying effort.