Fail Forward
You may be familiar with the concept of “failing forward”, which has become almost a cliché in the business world due to the success of the book by John C Maxwell. The premise in a nutshell: Failure means not achieving an objective we were striving for, but even when we fail it’s possible to make some progress toward a goal, or at least learn something that improves our chance for success next time. One of the key ideas is that there will be a next attempt, we don’t give up.
Every one of us has moral and spiritual failures. Just as in any other area of life, these failures can be really discouraging. However, we have some scriptural examples to follow, which show us that it is possible to fail forward. Here’s a sampling.
Samson had repeated moral failures, in spite of being filled with the Spirit and being designated by God as the one to begin delivering Israel from the Philistines. Delilah, who tried and failed over and over to get the secret out of Samson, eventually succeeded. Samson’s greatest failure then came as the Philistines overpowered him when the Lord left him. He failed, but Samson turned back to God, and God acted one more time through Samson to weaken the Philistines. (See Judges 13-16.)
When Cyrus decreed that Jews could return from captivity to their own land and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, many did, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest. They made a good start, laying the foundation. But then strong opposition came from their neighbors, and the work stopped. They failed. However, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah came along and motivated the people and their leaders to try again. Opposition arose again, but this time they didn’t stop, and ultimately the new Temple was completed. (See Ezra and Haggai for the full story.)
The greatest example I can think of is Peter. Jesus told his followers they would all abandon him. Peter was adamant that he wouldn’t, but Jesus was certain Peter would deny him. What makes this the greatest example is that Jesus actually coached Peter to fail forward, even while Peter was insisting he wouldn’t fail. Jesus said, “I’ve prayed that your faith won’t fail.” But he knew it would, and it did. Jesus goes on though: “When you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” In other words, “You’re going to fail me, but fail forward—don’t quit. I’ll need you to keep going, for the others. I need you to feed my sheep.” (Luke 22:31-34 & John 21:15-17)
It may not be comfortable to read these examples as applying to ourselves. Repeated moral failure, collapse of our best intentions due to push-back, acting in ways that in effect deny Jesus. Comfortable or not, it’s what we need to do, and we need to take the guidance they offer. We may be ashamed, we may be discouraged, we may feel completely defeated. The question is, do we just leave it there? Is our final answer the acceptance of spiritual failure? The Lord’s response to us is, “Okay, you’ve fallen down, you’re dirty, you’re hurt. I understand. Now get up! Think about what tripped you, and how you can avoid it next time. You’re not done, my friend. I need you. There are still Philistines who harass my people. There’s still a Temple to be built. I have sheep—your brothers and sisters—who need to be fed and strengthened. I know you failed. Now get back to work.”
Love, Paul