[Spirit of Leadership] PracticeSýnishorn

Handling Failure

After Jericho, the next city to be conquered was Ai. Joshua sent scouts to see what it was like. They came back and said, “We really don’t need the whole army. Just send two or three thousand soldiers. This one will be easy. If we could bring down Jericho, this is going to be a piece of cake.”

Joshua followed their advice, and Ai defeated his soldiers. It was a horrendous military defeat. It was tragic. It was terrible. 

Joshua felt the responsibility of it. He fell down, face first before God, and cried out, “What is going on?” 

The answer to Joshua’s question was this. Achan had taken something out of Jericho and put it in his own tent. Because of that, God’s people were cursed. Because one person had sinned by stealing something that had been dedicated to God, the people were not under God’s blessing, but under his curse. When the army of Israel went up to Ai they didn’t have God’s help, and they were defeated. 

Initially, Joshua did not know what happened, and so he fell on his face. Now, what do you do as a leader when you fall on your face, when you fail? Proverbs 24:16 says, “Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” 

The devil can get you down, but he can’t keep you down. This should be our attitude when we face failure. As a leader, there will be times when what you try does not work, when you have setbacks. Sometimes you feel you’re going two steps forward and one step backward. How we handle failure is critical to our success. Failure is an event. It is not a person. Having failed does not make you a failure. 

What do we do, as leaders, when things don’t go according to plan? Number one, we do like Joshua: we take responsibility as leaders. Number two, we ask tough questions. Joshua learned from God what happened and acted accordingly. Achan, to be honest, lost his life. He was destroyed. They got rid of the accursed thing. Do you know what happened next? The Israelites took Ai. They had a better plan this time. They defeated it soundly. Failing once does not mean you will fail the next time. Take responsibility, make corrections, and get up and try again. Failure does not have to be a permanent condition.