On Failure

So, I have been in a long-term conversation with someone regarding this whole realm of becoming who God has made us to become. It goes without saying that it's easier said than done. I mean, we talk about dreams and vision and life-purpose and we love to quote Jeremiah 29:11. But when you feel trapped in a cycle of not seeing it happen, then what?

What happens then, I think, is that we look at our situation with skewed lenses. We look to extrinsic factors to motivate us, because we don't think we're in the right spot (and we very well might not be in the right spot, but that's a post for a different day!), so we look for any glimmer of encouragement we can find. And we're encouraged as long as all the externals point to 'success' (whatever that means!) but the emptiness just becomes more obvious when there is no sign of external success. When we try to do a good thing to help someone, but no one wants our help. When we put ourselves out there and we end up standing out there by ourselves. As we're standing there, holding the bag, we become frustrated; we feel like a failure; we make people feel guilty for not wanting to be a part of something so important.

As I look at Jesus, at the time of his death, every external indication pointed to failure. Jesus changed the life of every single person he met. And Mark tells us that, when Jesus was arrested, "They all left him and fled" (14:50). If anyone had a reason to make people feel guilty for abandoning him, it was Jesus: "Remember when you couldn't walk (or see, or hear, or speak, or...)? Yeah, well you're walking today because of me. Maybe you could show some appreciation!" If anyone had reason to be frustrated, it was Jesus. If Jesus was motivated extrinsically, he would have felt like a failure.

Yet this is Jesus at his highest point of success. This is Jesus fulfilling his mission on this earth. This is Jesus' passion.

In the church, so often, we measure everything externally. "Ooh, no one signed up for this community outreach; I guess they don't care about evangelism." Or, "Why doesn't anyone volunteer with the Junior High boys? Don't they care about this next generation?" Or, "We're offering this seminar/class but almost no one is coming; I guess they just don't want to grow in their faith like I do!" What would it look like if we measured everything by the same stick that Jesus did? First off, I think we would stop becoming frustrated and judgmental when we don't get the results we were hoping for. We wouldn't lay on the guilt for people who choose (for whatever reason) not to be a part of our thing. Instead, we would hold our heads high and say, "I believe God wanted me to do this and I am simply being faithful with it and letting Him do what He's going to do." Not only would we stop being judgmental, we wouldn't feel like a failure when we're stuck there all by ourselves. Our sense of success/failure would change. I am not a success because everybody wants to be a part of my thing. Nor am I a failure because nobody does. Reminder: Jesus' greatest success was shared by...NOBODY. Even his own Father, remember? "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 14:34)

But we never know what this lack of external success will look like down the road. We never know who will be impacted by our small act of faithfulness. We never know how our diligence with doing what seems to have nothing to do with that 'hope and future' that is promised in Jeremiah 29:11 will end up having everything to do with it.