Success and Failure

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out” (1 Cor 10:13)

All of us do not want to fail, I’m sure. From when we were young up to whatever point we are at now, we are always taught by our parents and teachers that failure is something disgraceful, that those who fail are often those ousted by society. Even the mass media, through novels, movies etc give us the impression that failure is something unacceptable. Because of this preconceived concept, we grow up not wanting to fail, we think of failure as a disease that we should avoid at all cost. This is especially in universities and colleges everywhere. We often find that students study night and day because they do not want to fail. I’m not saying that it’s not good but I’ll elaborate later.

So, what is success? Of course, everyone knows what it is, to achieve something good in life, to pass exams with flying colours, get a high paying job and so on. Success is something good but sometimes the quest for it makes us into what we are not. Sometimes we thirst so much for success that we do not care what happens to others or ourselves. We become self centered and envious because we are not able to be like others. This isn’t right. But it is because of the external pressures that we face. Modern society tends to measure success with results and qualifications, with material goods and position. If we are not rich or we do not have good paper qualifications, we are considered to be a failure. Success should not be measured by all this. What’s the use of being successful academically but we become miserable?

Many people want to be perfect because that’s what success is, partly. No one is perfect except God. Why must we become who we are not? God has made us in His own image and no matter what happens, we are always beautiful and perfect in His eyes. No one can be always successful from the moment he is born until the day he dies. Even Jesus was not always successful. A question that we should ask ourselves is this; is the craving for success so great that we lose ourselves in the process? The Bible says, for what does a man gain if he wins the world but loses the possession of his soul? If we lose our soul because of success, then what’s the use of it?

Failure on the other hand, is looked at as a negative aspect in life. Perhaps that’s true. I mean, no one in his right mind would want to fail, would you? Failure tends to bring you down, it makes one loses confidence and sometimes our life. I remember a case in our college where a girl hanged herself because she was afraid that she wouldn’t pass her exam. This is a case where one crumbles under pressure but I’m sure none of you will do that. Before I write further, you might ask what do I know about failure? Let me share my experiences of failure with you.

First, I failed my first year certificate, so I had to repeat the entire year. When I took my exams the second round, I had to resit some papers. My second year certificate I also had to resit some papers.. History repeated itself when I was doing my Diploma, this time i failed totally and had to repeat the entire year of study. The second time I took the exam, I had to resit 4 papers, the maximum allowable. I don’t know how many of you have experienced this, if you have please let me know. But I’m very sure resits are something common, right? Almost everyone has gone through it. My point is this, if I hadn’t experienced all this failure, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today. Because I failed, I was able to find God and experienced His love. The song “Strong and Constant” is a good example of what I’m trying to point out. It goes like this “When you find sorrow within your life, I will come, I will embrace your heart, Through your pain you will discover Me, Strong and constant is My love” Through my pain I have discovered God

Because I had failed before, I was able to accept many things in life. I learned to accept failure as part of life because without failure, there can never be success. Manny great people failed many times before succeeding. Examples are Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Isaac Newton. But because they were able to accept their failures and pick themselves up again, they were made stronger in their determination and will. People who have never failed before find it hard to search for God because they feel that they are too great, they do not need God. It is very hard for a successful person to find God’s love. Of course, there are some but these are rare indeed.

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves why are we afraid of failing? Is it because we fear that we will be rejected by our friends? Or is it because we fear that our parents will consider us stupid? Christ asks us not to be afraid because we only have to ask for His grace, then we will be able to face life. We should not be afraid to fail, I’m not asking you to fail but if it’s unavoidable, we should be able to accept it because it is only when we fail that we will succeed eventually. Why? Because success is failure turned inside out. Success and failure normally come hand in hand and I strongly believe it’s better to suffer first than succeed first because the higher we are, the harder we fall.

So be not afraid to fail. Failure is not just something to be feared but to be accepted as a part of life. It is easier for those who have failed to receive God’s love than those who have never failed before.