Keep the Faith: When You Fail (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
I want to begin today by telling you my message in four words. These four words sum up one of the key messages of our faith – failure is never final!
I have a hunch that many of you need to hear that message today. Have you worked hard on something only to see it fall apart? Have you had a dream that you planned for and believed in with all of your heart only to see the dream shatter? Perhaps it is a relationship or a career. Maybe it is some kind of life-work or goal. Whatever it is, you are discouraged that it has never worked out. Perhaps this morning you sit here with your failures at your feet and you want to give up. Before you wave the white flag of surrender on your dreams and goals, I want you to think twice before you give up.
I want to lift up two characters in the New Testament who teach us a valuable lesson about failure – Judas and Peter. Both of them failed. Both of them messed in their nest. Both of them made fools out of themselves. Both of them turned their back on Jesus. But here is the key – one knew failure was not final and the other one didn’t. Peter made a comeback and Judas gave up on life. If Judas had only realized that failure was not final, his name would be a name of honor, not shame.
We read that awful story of betrayal in out text. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. It is one of the saddest scenes in the gospels. So many of us have been conditioned to believe that Judas was predestined to play the role of the betrayer. I don’t believe that. Judas had free will just like the rest of us. What’s more is that the handwriting was on the wall for Jesus regardless of what Judas would have done. Jesus had disrupted too many comfortable systems. His destiny was sure.
The important point I want you to understand is that Judas was forgiven just like Peter and the rest of the disciples. The text says they all ran out, they all deserted, and they were all forgiven. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. He felt terrible, yet 50 days later he preached the Pentecost sermon and three thousand people were converted! Judas was forgiven too. He could have made a comeback. The big difference between Simon Peter and Judas is Judas thought his failure was final and he took his own life, but Peter knew failure is never final and Christ renewed his life.
People are never defeated until they accept defeat as a permanent reality in their minds. I have learned that people’s greatest achievements and successes usually come just one step beyond the feeling of defeat and discouragement. You see, most people quit on the five-yard line, just inches away from their greatest achievement.
Ever heard of Bernie Marcus? He was an executive for Handy Man Stores. One day corporate headquarters didn’t like what he was doing and they fired him. His friends began encouraging him and they threw around some ideas. They came up with a new concept. You may have heard of it – The Home Depot. Failure is never final.
Along the Main street sidewalk in Longmont, Colorado, there is a unique plaque. The plaque marks the spot where a butcher opened a store and went bankrupt. We don’t usually honor business failures with plaques. Well, as you might imagine, there is more to the story. That butcher moved north to Wyoming where he opened a dry goods store. It did rather well. His name was J.C. Penney. He knew failure is never final.
I am sure you have heard of Thomas Edison. He had this crazy idea that light could be powered by electricity. People called him crazy. He failed thousands of times, but he would not stop trying until he succeeded. And he did! Failure is never final.
Oh, the Bible tells the same story. What about David? He failed God. He had an affair with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. He disappointed God, himself, and the ones he loved. Later, he was redeemed and used by God in mighty ways. He ended up a hero. Failure is never final.
Then there was Paul. He murdered Christians. He was a great enemy to the faith. Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus Road, and he was transformed. He ended up the author of most of the books in the New Testament! Failure is never final.
What if David and Paul had quit? What if they had thrown in the towel? Imagine that. What if a little nun and had said, “I can’t take care of all these sick people”? We would have never known Mother Theresa. What if a young African American boy from the south had said, “I can’t share these ideas. They are too dangerous”? We would have never known Martin Luther King, Jr. What if a carpenter from Nazareth had said, “I can’t change the world”? We would have never known Jesus Christ. Failure is never final. We are only defeated if we believe we are defeated.
The fact is we learn more through failure than we do success. We don’t like to hear this but it is true. The greatest lessons in life come at the moments of failure not success.
I am sure many of you have never heard the name Sergio Zyman, but his story is a powerful lesson about failure. Here is how Bill Self tells the story: “Zyman was the man who had been a sterling performer at the Coca-Cola Company. He had introduced Diet Coke, and it was an overnight success with stock market numbers soaring. Then Sergio Zyman went to the corporation and said, ‘I used to work with Pepsi and they had assessed the taste values of the younger generation, and we need to reformulate Coke’s taste.’ They agreed and called it New Coke (1985).
This new product was launched with great excitement and fanfare. But everyone who tasted it said, ‘This is awful, the worst stuff we’ve ever tasted.’ How would you like to have your whole career riding on a can of New Coke? He was a hero no longer. He became their scapegoat. New Coke was taken off the market and the old Coke was reintroduced as Classic Coke. Sergio Zyman went away to do some consulting for a while. Classic Coke came back stronger than it had ever been before, and that year became the best year in Coca-Cola’s history up to that point. Officials at Coca-Cola said, ‘We wish we could have a New Coke debacle every ten years. It would do wonders for our company.’ Zyman was rehired by Coke and he has a fine executive position. He is considered a hero and not the butt of jokes. Failure is not final” (“Defining Moments”).
Zyman learned the lesson that we all have to learn to learn – when life kicks you and knocks you down, you have to get back up. Some of the greatest victories in life are won by simply persevering.
I think about the old tale of Dusty, the donkey. I don’t know if any of you have heard this old tale, but it’s a good one. You see, this farmer’s donkey fell into a well one day that the farmer had forgotten to cover up, and there was this poor donkey deep into this well, and it was crying for a long, long time and just a horrible way as the farmer tried to find a way to get this donkey out of the well.
After all these different tries of trying to do something, it just didn’t work. And finally, the farmer said, “You know what? This is an old donkey. It’ll probably die soon and I need to fill this well anyway. So, I’m just going to fill it up and bury him right here.” Awful thought, right? But this farmer, he called all of his neighbors and gave him a shovel, and it began to pour dirt into this well on top of this poor donkey. And at first, when the donkey figured out what was going on, it cried and it cried and it cried. But then to the amazement of everyone, it got very quiet. And after a few more shovels of dirt went on the back of that donkey, the farmer looked down and was amazed at what this donkey was doing. With every shovel of dirt that hit this donkey’s back, he would shake it off and take a step-up, shake it off, and take a step-up.
And as the neighbors kept pouring in the dirt, it kept shaking it off and taking a step up until finally, they were all shocked when this donkey stepped out of the well and trotted off.
Now what’s the moral of the story? Life is going to throw dirt at you. Oh, if you haven’t learned that, you will. Life is going to throw dirt at you over and over and over again. And the key of getting out of that pit, the key of getting out of that well is shaking it off and taking a step-up. With God’s help, shaking it off and taking a step-up. The key is not quitting, but shaking it off and taking a step-up. The Bible calls this working out our salvation.
You see, in God’s eyes, our trouble, our adversity, our pain is simply stepping stones to a greater faith, a more mature faith, a stronger faith. So, we can face anything.
God uses adversity to strengthen us and to mature us. James 1:3-4 says, “Whenever you face trials of any kind consider it nothing but joy because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Sometimes failure is just waiting to succeed or preparing for success. Perhaps what we consider failures are simply lessons God wants us to learn before we can succeed. We can’t succeed until we learn these valuable lessons. If we will be patient and trust God’s wisdom and timetable, we will be victorious.
How will you handle your failure? You have a choice. You can give up or you can allow God to use your failure to strengthen you for the future.
Life is filled with examples of people whose destiny was based on how they chose to deal with failure. To use a bad example, I think of Adolph Hitler. He used his time in prison to write his famous book in which he perpetuated the radical hatred and violence that resulted in great human destruction around the world. But then there was John Bunyan. He was imprisoned in England and wrote the famous Christian classic, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” in which he so beautifully described his experience of the grace of God. Helen Keller was deaf and blind. Beethoven was deaf. Milton was blind. Yet, they all chose to turn their trouble into triumph.
I think a lady I worked with in another church I served said it best. She had faced great difficulty in her life. One day she said to me, “I have learned that I can get bitter or I can get better.” Now, that is the right attitude! Failure can make you better.
Here is what I want you to hear today: It’s not how you start but how you finish that counts. Anybody can start something. The world is filled with starters. But the race does not go to those who start well but to those who finish well. Remember that.
Many of you are familiar with the name Carl Lewis. In the 1984 Olympics he won four gold medals in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and the 4X times X 100 meter relay. The only other person ever to do that in history was Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1988 Lewis won two more Olympic gold medals; in 1992 he won another two gold medals; in 1996 he won another gold medal, for a grand total of nine. In 1991 he set a new world record in the 100 meter dash, covering it in 9.86 seconds.
James Merritt makes this observation about Lewis: “The interesting thing about Carl Lewis is that even though at one time he was the fastest man in the world, he was also the slowest starter in the field. If you go back and look at his races, he always started out behind because he was a notoriously slow starter. The reason why he was winning at the end is because he was the best finisher. Carl Lewis is living proof that it is not how you start, but it is how you finish that counts.”
Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Sometimes our timing and God’s timing don’t match and we simply must wait. All we have to do is hang on, rely on God’s strength and God will bring us the victory. Anybody can start something. The world is filled with starters. But the race does not go to those who start well, but to those who finish well.
But maybe what I have said today does not do much for you because your failure is a sin or mistake. It is something that has pulled you down and regret and shame has gotten the best of you.
Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Take comfort from the fact that everyone fails. To be human is to fail. We all mistakes. We all sin. Maybe it is time to cut yourself some slack and not be so hard on yourself. What’s more is that Jesus did not come for perfect people. He came for people who sin and need help. If your failure is a sin or mistake of some kind, receive God’s forgiveness in Christ, reconcile with the person involved (if applicable) and then move forward. God doesn’t want you to beat yourself up. God loves you and wants to help you find joy and peace. What sin or failure do you need to let go of today?
I served as a chaplain at Emory Hospital. Most of us who went to Candler did that. They called it supervised ministry. We called it supervised misery. It was tough. They said, “Oh, you want to be a pastor? Here you go. Put on a badge. Go see sick and dying people. You’ll find out.”
Well, I had a supervisor who was rather unorthodox. He had a way of getting to the truth. And I was following him around one day. This is when I first started. I was green it. I had a lot to learn. And we went to see a man who had drug issues, was in the hospital because of a drug overdose. He was a prominent man. Everybody knew who he was and everybody found out about his drug problem. And we walked in and the man started to cry and said, “Chaplain, I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost my reputation. I have lost my livelihood. I have lost it all.” And my supervisor said, I couldn’t believe he said it, “What?” He said, “Oh, the end? Well, honestly, I see this as just the beginning.” The man was floored. “Didn’t you hear what I said? I said I’ve lost it all.” He said, “You’ve lost everything?” “Well, everything that ever mattered to me.” My supervisor replied, “I guess that means God has you all to himself now, doesn’t it? Imagine what God can do with you now.”
You know sometimes failure teaches us that most important lesson of all. Some of us don’t find out that Jesus is all we need until Jesus is all we have left.
Psalm 145: 14 says, The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads.
This is the important reason we should never give up. Jesus never gives up on us. The Bible says that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Don’t give up on God. Don’t give up on life. Don’t give up on your dreams. Don’t give up on yourself. God believes in you so failure in never final.