Failure ~ An Advent Reading

How often do we see God as an objective reporter, merely observing our life, perhaps even taking notes on our successes and failures (heavy on that second one) from afar? Failure. How often does this sense plague our soul and contaminate our life blood? The lurking dark inkling that we aren’t good enough, or that what we gave wasn’t really enough, whether in our private or public lives, even if it truly was the best we had to offer? I’m afraid that during this season of merriment all too often many of us are feeling like failures.

The family we do life with day in and day out isn’t glamorous and is in fact, very broken. The quality of our work doesn’t seem to be enough. The meal we fixed for the family gathering wasn’t all we had hoped. Our decorations are lacking. But this certainly won’t be what today’s facebook post surmises!

Now, pick a character from the holy family. Any one of them could have been defined by an apparent failure. First, Mary was an unwed, pregnant teenager. Why, she must have done something disastrous for this to have happened! Second, it initially appeared to Joseph that the love of his life had cheated on him. And it likely continued to appear that way to many of their family members. So what exactly was wrong with him to justify this unfaithfulness toward him? Finally, even Jesus himself was rejected by many and ultimately crucified. What had he done to deserve such a cruel death? What had any of them done to deserve such suffering? Shockingly, absolutely nothing.

We can see this in their stories, but can we see it in our own? The struggle you are going through, it isn’t because you’re a failure. Certainly we struggle at times because of poor choices that we have made and their resulting natural consequences. But here is the thing, the Creator of the universe more intimately than any other knows why we made that poor choice. He knows it, and knows us, even better than we know ourselves. He understands that a poor choice often flows from a broken spirit that in all honesty was likely doing the best it could at the time. And where we have been willfully disobedient, His consistent go-to response is grace and forgiveness. His heart of love wants nothing more than to show us, as we turn to Him for answers, our own destructive patterns and to teach us new paths; paths of life!

God is not merely a distant observer of His children, nor does He view any of us as failures. The angel told Mary that she had “found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). The Bible refers to Joseph as a “righteous man” (Matthew 1:19). And not once, but TWO times God refers to Jesus as, “My beloved son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17 and 17:5).

Here is a counter-world concept: we aren’t successful based upon anything we’ve done. We are successful because God made us. We are made in His image and this is what God says about his children, even today: We are God’s work of art (Eph 2:10), He has chosen us (Isaiah 41:9-10, 43:10) and called us by name (Isaiah 43:1), we are precious and honored, deeply loved by Him (Isaiah 43:4).

It has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with Him. His calling. His purpose. When I am focused upon myself, I see failure and, frankly, am in danger of such. But when I remain focused upon Him, I see there is a bigger plan, a fuller purpose. And it is saturated with success and hope, because He is nothing less. And in Him, I, too, am nothing less. Return your focus to Him today and live in the light of who created you and how He created you to be!

Psalm 103:8-14

⁸ The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
    slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
⁹ He will not constantly accuse us,
    nor remain angry forever.
¹⁰ He does not punish us for all our sins;
    he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
¹¹ For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
¹² He has removed our sins as far from us
    as the east is from the west.
¹³ The Lord is like a father to his children,
    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
¹⁴ For he knows how weak we are;
    he remembers we are only dust.