Into the Deep: Going Beyond AnxietySample

Fear of Failure

There is a blessing in failure that none of us has ever wanted.

Being more familiar with failure than I’d like, I can attest to the hope that if we survive the discouragement that it brings, failure can bless us with humility—a chastening of our feelings that we are as gods (Psalm 82:6).

I think the reason I do not hear more teaching on failure and humility in the churches I have attended is that few want to hear a word that is incongruent with culture-driven ideas of success. But failure, loss, and defeat have more wisdom to teach us than win after win. It is only when we are at the end of our strength that we come around to the truth of Scripture’s proclamation that life and wholeness are to be found in seeking God’s ways.

At the end of his earthly life, Samuel’s shortcomings as a father came to light in the behaviour of his sons, who “took bribes and perverted justice.” Afraid of what lay ahead with these corrupt leaders, Israel called for a king “like all the nations” around them. We are not told exactly how Samuel felt, but one can imagine he felt like he had failed as both father and prophet. Being a father to two boys, this is a fear that I often feel: that when they are grown, my failures as a father will be evident in their lack of good character as adults.

Yet God reassures Samuel that it is God himself who is being rejected. And so, even in the midst of the disappointment at the end of his life of service to both God and his own people, Samuel speaks God’s words to the people, declaring the consequences of their desire to be like the other nations. Although this is a dire proclamation and no doubt carries the heaviness of disappointment, Samuel is still used by God.

This is the blessedness of failure: that despite our shortcomings and the waywardness of the people we love and serve, there is always the hope that God will fulfill his word and that his kingdom will continue to come. The reorientation we experience in failure is the realization that this story is not about our glory, but about God’s. This is difficult for the Western mind to accept, but hope in failure is not based on the assurance that our plans will succeed. Hope in failure is rooted in the truth that somehow, God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven.

1. How have you grown from failure?
2. In retrospect, has failure been a place where God has revealed himself to you?