#fail blog
No one likes to fail, but failure is an inevitable part of life. Therefore, how we deal with failure is critical to future success. The problem is, not all failure is the same, and so being able to recognize the differences and respond accordingly is crucial. But how do we do that? I would suggest that the keys to snatching success from the jaws of failure may be found by examining three biblical accounts of failure: Joshua and the Israelites at Ai (Joshua 7-8), Elisha and the Shunammite woman’s son (2 Kings 4:18-37), and Paul’s aborted trip to Bithynia (Acts 16:6-10).
After their supernatural victory at Jericho, Joshua’s advisors suggested sending a much smaller force to capture the much smaller Ai. It made sense on a number of levels: Ai was smaller, and its defenses were not nearly as formidable as those of Jericho. Also, the road leading up from Jericho to Ai were narrow, winding, and rather steep, a treacherous proposition for Israel’s full army (check out my discussion about the unique characteristics of the battle at Ai here). Besides, with God on their side, Israel’s forces had just wiped Jericho off the map. The smaller force should have no problem at Ai. Yet, in Joshua 7:5, “the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six [Israelites] and chased them from outside the city gate to the quarries, striking them down on the descent.”
In 2 Kings 4:18-37, Elisha was horrified to learn that the Shunammite woman’s son had died. He bid his faithful servant Gehazi to run ahead with his staff and lay it upon the boy’s face, but the boy did not wake up. When Elisha arrived at the woman’s home, he himself went in, closed the door, and prayed. After the prophet lay upon the boy, his flesh was warmed, but he was still not resuscitated.
In Acts 16:6-10, the apostle Paul was on his second missionary journey. He and his colleagues had revisited the churches which had been planted during the first missionary journey and had set their sites on more territories that had not yet heard the gospel. But before they even began, Paul ran into roadblocks. The Holy Spirit forbade them to speak in the province of Asia. Then, “they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.”
In each case of these cases, people on great missions for God apparently failed, and in this apparent failure, they faced a number of bewildering things. Confusion. Discouragement. Grief. Anger. Fear.
Yet, these cases were not the same.
Failure at Ai was the result of sin. Achan at Jericho had stolen some of the stuff that was reserved for God. Even the slightest degree of disobedience can derail us, but once the sin was addressed – the people sought the Lord and the unrepentant guilty were punished – Israel was able to return victoriously to Ai. The solution here was repentance.
Failure at the Shunammite woman’s home was temporary. After Gehazi failed to revive her son with the prophet’s staff, and the prophet himself failed to revive the boy, Elisha went into the house and paced back and forth. Then, in 2 Kings 4:35, “he went up and bent down over [the boy] again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes,” and Elisha was able to return the boy to his mother alive. The solution here was perseverance.
Failure at Bithynia was fake news. The night after their attempt to enter Bithynia was thwarted by the Spirit of Jesus, Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man beckoning him and his friends to bring the gospel to Europe. When they arrived in Macedonia, they met Lydia, who convinced them to stay in Philippi for a time, and Paul and co. experienced an incredibly fruitful (though not exactly easy) ministry. The solution here was a course correction.
These three situations intersected in apparent failure. Nevertheless, they were fundamentally different: different causes, different solutions. We must, therefore, be able to discern which type of failure we are dealing with so that we can implement the proper solution, but how can we do that?
First, we must recognize that failure is failure is failure. Whenever things have gone awry, whether the failure is real or merely perceived, there are a number of things which are universal. For example, as observed, we will all experience confusion, discouragements, grief, anger, fear, etc., regardless of the nature of our failure. Do not draw any conclusions regarding the cause of or solution to your failure based on such things.
Second, we must often step back to gain some perspective. Indeed, this is a common refrain among these biblical accounts of failure. Consider, after the defeat at Ai, Joshua fell facedown before the ark of God “until evening” (Joshua 7:6). Elisha literally stepped back, going into the house and pacing back and forth. When Paul and co. were barred from Bithynia, they continued on their trip, passing Mysia and arriving at Troas where, during the night, the apostle had a vision. That is, he literally slept on the matter.
Of course, we are not always afforded the opportunity to remove ourselves from failure for an extended period of time. Indeed, while we do not know how much time elapsed between Bithynia and Troas, where Paul had his vision, we can assume it was just a few days, and Joshua stepped away from the situation only until evening. Elisha’s timeline is even more compressed, with the prophet taking just a few moments to rise, walk into the house, and do some pacing. Clearly, the point was not the amount of time that we step away, but simply the fact that we do step back, removing ourselves for even just a moment so that we can return to the situation with fresh, clear eyes to see what went wrong.
Third, we must seek God. This may take a number of forms. Joshua went to the ark of the covenant and vented to God. Elisha paced. Paul took a nap. However, I would submit that, in each case, these faith heroes were really making themselves available so that God could meet with them. Of course, Joshua’s meeting with God was postponed by his little tantrum, but eventually, each of these men was quiet before the Lord. When that happened, God either issued correction or he did not. In Joshua’s case, it was the revelation that there was sin in the camp, eventually leading to Achan’s discovery and punishment. Once the sin was rooted out, Israel was able to return triumphantly to Ai. In Paul’s case, it was the vision of a Macedonian man beckoning the missionary to Europe. Thus, when he awoke, he was ready to press on in the right direction. And in Elisha’s case, God was silent.
Which brings us to the final thing we must do in moments of failure: we must press on in whichever direction God points. To Joshua, in what is one of my favorite bits of Scripture, God said, “Stand up! Why have you fallen facedown? Israel has sinned” (Joshua 7:10-11). Sometimes when we fail, God will use the opportunity to reveal previously unknown sin in our lives. Other times, he will look at us, blinking silently, until we agree to deal with the sin that we already knew existed. Either way, pressing on means rooting out any sin in our lives.
For Paul, pressing on meant adjusting his course. The Spirit of Jesus had forbidden him from ministering in Asia or Bithynia, calling him instead to Macedonia. It was therefore imperative that Paul stopped trying to go to Asia or Bithynia and “immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10). Sometimes, failure is merely a course correction, and we must be obedient to press on in the new direction that God reveals.
For Elisha, though, things were a bit different. Elisha knew that God had promised the Shunammite woman a son (2 Kings 4:11-17). Since he had received no clear order countermanding that revelation, the prophet assumed that it was God’s will to resuscitate the boy and so returned to the bedroom one more time. Indeed, my colleague and friend, Paul Tillman, observed that we must press on in whatever calling God has made clear until he issues an equally clear calling to a new thing, and apparent failure does not equate to countermanding orders.
As evidence of this, consider how many times the people of God encountered setbacks or obstacles in Scriptures. Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, filling and subduing the earth, but then Cain killed Abel. Abraham was supposed to spawn a great nation, but then God called him to sacrifice Isaac. Joseph was supposed to be honored and revered by everyone, but then he found himself at the bottom of a well, sold into slavery, and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Israel ran headlong into the Red Sea. The greater nation of Israel lost 40,000 soldiers in two days of fighting with their much smaller brothers, the Benjaminites (Judges 19-20). David was ousted from his palace by his own kid. Elijah ended up under the broom tree. There was the whole exile thing. Nehemiah was confronted by Sanballat and Tobiah. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found themselves in a furnace, and Daniel landed in a lion’s den. And how many times was Gomer unfaithful to Hosea?
And that was just a few examples from the Old Testament! We have not even touched on all the obstacles Paul and the other apostles faced, let alone Jesus’ little detour through Golgotha and the tomb. From our vantage point, two thousand years after the fact, it is easy to gloss over these incidents, but in the heat of the moment, they no doubt looked and felt like failure. Yet, the answer was not to give up and go another way, let along go home.
God has no need for a Plan B, but how often is his ideal thwarted because we fail to press on, turning what should have been a temporary setback or obstacle into a permanent road closed barricade?
No, just because we fail the first, second, or 490th time (remember, Jesus told Peter to forgive 7 x 70 times) does not mean that we were wrong about God’s will. Sometimes, failure simply means that we must persevere.
Failure is a part of life. Even the most successful of us did not walk on the first try, and no matter how we came to it, failure hurts. But how we proceed in the wake of failure is crucial. Regardless of how we arrived at failure, we must gain some perspective, seek God, and press on from this point according to his revealed will.