THE SUCCESS OF FAILURE You would not think that being crucified early in your career as Rabbi would get the job done, but it did. It looked like he was going about it all wrong from the very start. He collected poorly connected common people to be his disciples. Some of them had hot tempers and at least one of them had been involved in a despised profession (Matthew). It was quite a scandal. All sorts of marginalized people stood up for him. He even had dealings with lepers, hookers, priests, children, and Gentiles. What was one to think? Jesus also had a bad habit of disappearing, avoiding crowds, and not seeking any of the accepted credentials for doing his work. He ignored (and sometimes bluntly challenged) well-meant advice from his closest followers. It is as if he was on a track that only he understood. People even walked away after his best teachings - just shaking their heads. He looked like he was on some self-destructive path. He was ousted early on by the kingmakers of his time. Failure appeared inevitable. It gets replayed in Paul. He went from giving his accepted credentials (his mentors and citizenship) to listing his rejections and beatings as his credentials. Having learned the success of failure from Jesus, he went on to change the lives of many millions in the generations that read his few brief letters and studied his life. In fact, he would even brag (though tongue-in-cheek) about his newfound credentials. He was poking fun at those thinking they were in the in crowd. In time, our social credentials have a way of lining our birdcages. What stays with us is the blessings of our failures. Mother Teresa lived and worked among the most hopeless in the single most unknown and ignored part of the world - the slums of Calcutta. She was plagued with doubts. She started her career as an unknown and was not at all well understood - even by some of the people that worked the closest with her. She ended up inspiring a generation of contemporary Christians and Hindus. All the while, it looked like what she was doing was hopeless. God works through your current mess. Your weaknesses are the avenues of Divine Grace. Everything right will come out of everything wrong, and you will never figure out how it happened. The Creator that called this universe into being is being just as creative in your life - using the tried and true success through failure methods that have always worked. Always! Dale Andrews © 2012
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:44:00 +0000
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