Reclaimed Failures

All of us know the agony of failure, for as long as there is life, and as long as the human spirit exists, there will be those who achieve success, and there will be those who fail; and sometimes, those who have achieved great success have done so only after they have tasted the bitter dregs of failure.

Failure is something most every believer, at some time or other, has experienced. Most of us have at one time or another tried and failed. We have probably failed hundreds of times. We have failed in big things; we have failed in small things. We may have failed so big and so often that we have been tempted to quit! John F. Kennedy said, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan no one wants to claim.”

Businessmen know what it is to succeed—and what it is to fail. Athletes, too, know something of both. Churches experience seasons of success and periods of spiritual draught. I am glad to say that God’s Word gives us the record of several—yes, many—men and women who failed, as big or bigger than anyone who may be reading this just now. Yet, God reclaimed them and used them even after they had failed, sometimes miserably!

Examine a few of these “failures” that were reclaimed for service, so that we might be encouraged to go on; to try again; to bounce back; to keep on keeping on, even though we have failed in past efforts.

Peter, whose confession Jesus said He would build His church upon, on the way to the Cross—through the Garden—insisted that he was ready to go to prison with Jesus, or even to death. Jesus, having warned Peter that Satan had desired to sift him, then announced to His fisherman-follower that on that very day, before the cock would crow, Peter would deny Him thrice. (Luke 22:32-34) It happened around an early morning fire. In the midst of the hall in the Jewish High Priest’s house, where some had gathered, Peter was identified as a follower of the Galilean by a maid and a couple of others. He adamantly denied the accusations and, upon his third denial, the cock crowed immediately, as Jesus had forewarned. The Bible says that Peter—seasoned fisherman, leader of the 12— went out and wept bitterly. Game over? Not at all! Jesus had not only predicted Peter’s denial; He promised that He had prayed for Peter and that he would have the opportunity to “strengthen thy brethren.” For the rest of the story, read Acts 2 and I and II Peter! Peter failed, repented, and was reclaimed by God for fruitful service to His glory!

The list is pretty remarkable: Abraham, “Father of the Jews,” failed to wait patiently on God’s promise of an heir; he fathered Ishmael by Hagar, thinking that at the age of 86 he would not have a son by his wife, Sarah, who also endorsed the failed plan. When Ishmael was 13 years of age, Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah—just one of the many times that Abraham took things into his own hands, failing to wait patiently upon the Lord; but God reclaimed this giant of faith, who looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. We could also mention Moses, and David, Jonah, Elijah, John Mark, and many more. Men who failed, sometimes with disastrous ramifications, but whose lives were reclaimed by a longsuffering, merciful God of the second chance, and third, and….

There are examples not only from the Bible but, of course, from history as well.

David Livingstone, in the heart of Africa, considered himself a failure as a husband, a father, a missionary—but most of all as a liberator. It was through his fault that his wife died an untimely death; through his neglect that his children were orphaned; and he blamed himself that all hope for the liberation of slaves was abandoned. There was nothing to show for it all. But today, his remains are in Westminster Abbey. A failure? History has been the judge. (From an article in “Pulpit Helps,” by Austin Sorenson—adapted)

The co-founder of Apple Computer, the late Steve Jobs, was actually fired from his position as CEO of the company before he came back to lead its renaissance. Jobs said, “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to me. It freed me to enter into one of the most creative periods of my life.”

Thomas Edison maintained that there was really no such thing as failure. He said, “Suppose I make a thousand experiments, and every one of them fails. All right—I have learned a thousand things that won’t work.” One can learn by failures. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, said of success and failure: “Not having a goal is more to be feared than not reaching a goal. I would rather attempt to do something great and fail, than to do nothing and succeed.” Teddy Roosevelt believed that to try and fail was better than to never try. He said, “Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy life much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

You have failed! You may be failing just now. But God cannot fail, and you can rest assured that He is not finished working in your life.

The Devil would like for you to think that because you have failed, you are now useless to God. Remember John Mark, nephew of Barnabas, who accompanied the Apostle Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary trip all the way to Perga, and then returned home—an apparent quitter. Paul was so disappointed with John Mark that he adamantly refused to agree with Barnabas that Mark should be given another chance to go with them as they were planning their second missionary trip. So serious was their difference on this that Paul took Silas with him, and Barnabas took Mark, the original team parting ways. John Mark, a “quitter?” A “Momma’s boy?” We do not know why he returned to his mother Mary’s house in Jerusalem, but we do know that what he did brought upon him the decided disapproval of Paul. Game over? Not at all! Years later, as Paul was writing his final words, waiting imminent martyrdom at the hands of the Romans, he wrote from prison (II Tim. 4:11), and the last person that he asked to see was Mark: “Take Mark, and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” Talk about a reclaimed failure!

And God is still in the reclamation business! God can and will use you! He prayed for Peter. He prays for us, too. Just keep on keeping on! Out of ashes can come beauty.

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again….” (Proverbs 24:16)