F is for FAILURE

I have said hello to failure many times in my life. Some times it was at school when exam results appeared, often it was on the rugby field either personally when I missed a kick, a tackle or threw a bad pass or just made the wrong decision and also collectively when, despite the best efforts of our team on the day, the result didn't go our way. A couple of years after leaving school, I found myself facing relegation with our club and even though we made every effort and always held out every hope of avoiding the drop, nevertheless it happened. I have been in dressing rooms during those experiences and when we have lost cup finals or league play-offs, when you just sit in your kit and stare into space wondering what might have been and I tell you it's not a happy time. I have watched my old school fail to win the cup on many occasions and understand their dejection and I have seen my own son suffer the same fate as I have on many dark days.

I have sat with parents when their children have failed to obtain the necessary grade for entry to their chosen school and I have watched the visual disappointment as they resign themselves to a different route for their son or daughter. I have seen my own children fail at different things, just like I did once and I know the sadness they feel at the time. I have watched athletes fail in their attempts to win medals, after years of training, I have known players failing to realise their potential in football, rugby and other sports , interviewed people for jobs who fail to grasp the position and met people whom I knew from many years ago who have had many failures and disappointments along the way.

However, no longer is it politically correct to talk about failure in school. Now we talk about deferred success. Can you believe it? Just in case we damage the mentality or psychological makeup of an individual for ever. So now we have to think about using the 'two wishes and a star' method to mark pupil work, where we always find two positive things to write about their efforts and one thing that they could improve upon. Nor are we meant to use an X when they fail to get something right and in our local education system, the powers that be don't want children to be selected on academic ability any more, because nobody must be a failure. Why, they even make the exams easier so that everyone is successful. Which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, when I think what our future teachers, doctors, solicitors and a host of other professions are going to be like when success does not truly indicate ability. It's all about being politically correct, not hurting anybody's feelings, making everyone equal but it's not really very scriptural at the end of the day.

I look back at my failures and those of other people I know and while it was uncomfortable and distressing at the time, I learned from each situation and it gave me valuable experience that helped me to achieve later on. Failure in exams made me prepare more thoroughly, failure in rugby made me analyse my game, failure to find the right chord in a song made me search until I discovered it, failure to explain a problem to a pupil made me look for other ways to help them understand, failure to obey the road laws made me more careful in future and failure to live up to the high standards God sets for me makes me more determined to not fail the next time.

And even the great men of the Bible failed sometimes in their faith, men like Noah to whom God entrusted the survival of the human world and its living things, yet whose drunkenness caused him to act immorally, like David who trusted God to help him slay a giant and rule a country but whose eyes lingered too long on another woman and caused him to commit adultery and kill. Like Paul, who though sincerely religious, found himself to be sincerely wrong, like Samson who failed to see the dangers in cavorting with the enemy until it robbed him of his greatest asset. Like Jonah who simply failed to obey God's call, Peter who promised undying support and wasn't there just when it was most needed, Samuel who was so busy doing God's work that he forgot he had a family to raise for God too. Yet through all their failures they learned something about life that helped them to be even better people for God. I guess it's all about recognising your failure for what it is, knowing the cause and addressing it so that next time your response is different.

And yet it is so good to know that even when we do fail God in our daily walk through our words, actions or thoughts, He is always there to forgive us and forget the times when we haven't lived up to His high standards. And I constantly live in the knowledge that, as Paul says in his writings to the Philippians, 'I can do everything through him who gives me strength.' And because of this , 'I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' Don't fail to remember that.